Cities

China's BYD Company Limited has inked a deal to supply the city of Frankfurt, Germany, with its all-electric, long-range, eBUS.

Singapore looks set to be the first country to have a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the European Union (EU), that promotes the green technology sector. In 2010 bilateral trade between the two hit SGD76.9 billion (USD62.5 billion).

A Sino-Japanese home appliance recycling project is being set up in Tonglu county, Zhengjiang province.

Malaysia's Ministry of Energy, Green Technology and Water is currently in talks with Bank Negara Malaysia on the possibility of providing soft loans for consumers to purchase solar photovoltaic (PV) panels. It estimates that solar panels with one kilowatt peak capacity would cost about RM15,000 (USD5,000).

SMRT Corporation - Singapore's multi-modal public transport service provider - has signed a memorandum of understanding with China's BYD.

Chemical giant BASF launched the Compost Asia Pledge Facebook app on World Environment Day, with the aim to keep organic waste out of landfills and incinerators.

In a wide ranging and unusually frank press conference on Friday China's Vice Minister of Environmental Protection, Li Ganjie, told journalists that while the country had met pollution reduction targets set for the 11th Five-Year Plan between 2006 and 2010, three decades of fast-paced economic growth has nonetheless left its environment in very poor shape.

Aleenta Phuket-Phang Nga has scooped the Asia Pacific Hotel Awards 2011 for Best Small Hotel and Best Sustainable Hotel in both the Thailand and Asia Pacific categories.

The worst drought in half a century in China will not push up grain prices drastically, but paddy rice growth will be affected, experts say.