The rapid expansion of renewable technologies is one of the few bright spots in an otherwise bleak assessment of global progress towards low-carbon energy, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in an annual report to the Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM).
“The drive to clean up the world’s energy system has stalled,” IEA executive director Maria van der Hoeven told the CEM, which brings together ministers representing countries responsible for four-fifths of global greenhouse-gas emissions.
The Philippines is sitting on vast renewable energy potential of more than 250-GW of power that could save money, generate jobs and make electricity available and affordable to more Filipinos, according to Greenpeace.
In a new report, Green Is Gold: How renewable energy can save us money and generate jobs, the NGO says the Philippines economy stands to benefit from massive renewable energy investments and does not need to rely on outdated and destructive fossil fuels.
China has said it will provide subsidies to a further 496 new renewable power projects that under a tariff surcharge program, with wind farms making up over three quarters of the total according, to a list posted on the Ministry of Finance website yesterday.
Japanese pulp and paper giant, Oji Holdings, a massive consumer of renewable energy, has announced plans to sell clean power to bolster its flagging bottom line and take advantage of generous government subsidies.
Just as China's Ministry of Finance has said it plans to pay CNY8.6 billion (USD1.4 billion) in subsidies for electricity generated from renewable power this year, the central government said it was shaking up the solar feed-in tariff (FiT).
India’s Business Standard reported yesterday that authorities have assessed the potential for renewable energy in the state of Odisha (formerly Orissa) at 11.82-GW and will be looking at private funding to help tap it.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has unsurprisingly concluded that Burma has a wealth of possibilities for power generation but lacks the money to exploit them.
At least 600-MW of renewable energy projects have been awarded by the Philippine Government to private developers in the Central Visayas region as of September, according to Department of Energy supervisor of the environmental impact and monitoring division, Rey C Maleza, speaking to reporters on the side lines of an renewable energy forum in Manila this week.
A report by a group of UK campaign groups has warned that burning biomass (such as wood) in power stations may hinder attempts to tackle climate change.
Biomass-based power generation has been promoted as an economic means of low-carbon power but the report by Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and the RSPB, warns that it will take too long for trees to re-absorb the carbon emitted by burning wood.
Japan's Sumitomo Osaka Cement plans to meet 40 percent of its energy needs from alternatives within three years and 50 percent in the longer term. The cement industry is noted for high energy needs and fuel and electricity make up more than one third of cement’s costs.
South Korea is making a bid for leadership in the UK's biomass power sector. Korea South-East Power (KOSEP), KDB Daewoo Securities and Eco-Frontier have signed up to a major investment in one of the UK's largest planned biomass power plants. They will be involved in site preparation and construction, as well as financing.
Vietnam’s Dak Lak Province is aiming to make renewable energy account for 25 percent of its energy mix by 2015 through a combination of wind, solar and biomass.
Members of the San Jose City Rice Millers Association in the Philippines along with private investors have broken ground on a new 9.9-MW rice husk biomass power plant
General Electric and Indonesian state utility firm Perusahaan Listrik Negara yesterday signed a Letter of Intent to collaborate on a pilot biomass power plant in Sumba, East Nusa Tenggara.
A rice husk biomass plant is on the books for Cambodia. The Phnom Penh Post reported that an unnamed Malaysian company is due to sign a contract with the Federation of Cambodian Rice Millers Association, according to its president, Phou Puy.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is providing USD600 million for a package of green projects that will transform waste into clean energy, reduce CO2 emissions, expand eco-friendly transport, and protect fragile wetland areas in fast-growing second-tier cities in the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
The World Bank and the United Nations have pledged to work together to boost the world's poor access electricity. Dr Jim Yong Kim, president of the World Bank is to co-chair an advisory board with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to push the Sustainable Energy for All initiative.
Japan’s environment Minister Goshi Hosono unveiled a new strategy Friday to boost power generation capacity of four primary renewable energy sources — offshore wind, geothermal, biomass and tidal power — by more than by 2030.
The plan, if successful, is aimed at eliminating all nuclear power plants.
Announcing the Innovative Strategy for Energy and the Environment after the day's Cabinet meeting, Hosono said his ministry plans to increase the combined annual capacity of electricity generation through the four key renewables to as much as 19.41 GW by 2030
This report by the World Bank spells out what the world would be like if it warmed by 4 degrees Celsius, which is what scientists are nearly unanimously predicting by the end of the century, without serious policy changes.
Companies in Asia reveal expectations that regulations that could lead to rising costs for reporting and reducing GHG emissions will also be the main sources of climate-related business opportunities.
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