Authorities in Beijing have committed to replace all coal-fired equipment in the city's core areas by 2013 in an effort to curb pollution stemming from its dominant energy source, according to Xinhua.
Singapore, which has long prided itself on its pristine cleanliness, had the largest carbon footprint per head in the Asia-Pacific in 2010, conservation group WWF said Monday.
A new survey report issued by China’s Ministry of Land and Resources (MLR) yesterday has revealed that the country has 25.08 trillion cubic meters of exploitable shale gas reserves, excluding any that may exist in Qinghai and Tibet.
The new survey is the latest step to be taken in China’s effort to emulate the United States in exploring for shale gas to help restructure its energy supplies and fuel its economic growth. The country’s reserves of the fuel are the world’s largest.
China’s State Council has issued a statement outlining plans for a new air quality standard to be adopted in phases by cities across the country. Although the exact level of various pollutants in the new standard was not revealed, it will include measures of ozone and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) for the first time.
The four municipalities - Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Chongqing - and 27 provincial capitals, as well as three key regions, including the Yangtze and Pearl river deltas and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, will start monitoring PM2.5 and ozone intensity this year.
How times have changed. Indonesia’s state power company PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) plans to begin large-scale electricity trading with Malaysia in 2014.
The company is building a new high-capacity transmission network connecting the Indonesian province of West Kalimantan with the neighboring Malaysian state of Sarawak on the island of Borneo, where the two countries fought an undeclared war in the 1960s.
As its fellow countrymen in Beijing gasp for clean air in near record pollution levels, Shanghai says it will spend 10.3 billion yuan (USD1.6 billion) on air pollution reduction over the next three years, a 40-percent increase over the amount spent over the last three years combined.
The Chinese Government has announced plans to let the market play a role in helping users be more economical with their energy use and protect the environment.
Before celebrations break out among the free-market followers of Adam Smith, however, it should be pointed out that the announcement came from the Pricing Department of China’s mighty National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). It emphasized that when the reformed system of energy and resource pricing is introduced later this year, it will be timed to minimize impacts on consumer prices.
China aims to cut its energy consumption per unit of industrial value-added output by 21 percent during the 12th Five-Year Plan period (2011-2015), the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said in a statement on Monday.
A group of 204 aquatic farmers in Tuoji Island, in China’s Shandong Province want oil giant ConocoPhillips to pay 606 million yuan (USD96 million) in compensation for losses caused by oil leaks in Bohai Bay last June, according to a report in the Global Times.
The Taiwan government claims that some 229 energy projects it has promoted cut carbon emissions in the country by 4.82 million metric tonnes in 2011, according to a report by the Bureau of Energy under the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
India and China joined forces on Tuesday in saying they firmly rejected the EU's "unilateral" decision to impose a carbon tax on air travel, the Associated Press reports.
In a move certain to further raise the ire of US republicans, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Friday pledged to enhance energy cooperation with China during a visit to Guangzhou, capital city of south Guangdong province.
China's Ministry of Land and Resources (MLR) said on Sunday that the country will increase efforts to explore shale gas, a move expected to help restructure the country's energy supplies.
The New Zealand government is believed to have chosen the lead managers for the flotation of a national renewable energy company. The IPO of Mighty River Power leads a new round of state IPOs after a decade of inactivity.
Goldman Sachs, Macquarie Capital New Zealand and First New Zealand Capital/Credit Suisse Australia are reported by the Australian Financial Review and Bloomberg to have been appointed to manage the sale.
The government hopes that selling Mighty River Power, and four other companies including Genesis Power Ltd, Solid Energy New Zealand Ltd and Meridian Energy Ltd, will raise as much as NZD7 billion (USD5.8 billion) for the nation's depleted coffers.
China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC) said Wednesday that it has reached an agreement with ConocoPhillips China and the Ministry of Agriculture to settle compensation claims stemming from oil spills in north China's Bohai Bay, according to Xinhua.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will help China set up a pilot provincial emissions trading system that is expected to pave the way for a national scheme and help cut emissions of the largest green house gas emitter on the planet.
"Emissions trading encourages companies to increase energy efficiency and renewable energy supply, which would ultimately result in reduced greenhouse gas emissions" said Pradeep Perera, senior energy specialist in ADB's East Asia Department. "This pilot will provide valuable lessons for the design of a nationwide system to reduce the carbon intensity of the Chinese economy."
New research from market data provider Platts shows that, in spite of indications of economic slowdown, China's oil needs are still reaching record levels. It rose 0.7 percent year-on-year to 41.02 million tonnes, or an average 9.69 million barrels per day (b/d), for December.
India is producing power from solar cells more cheaply than by burning diesel for the first time, spurring companies to jettison the fuel in favor of photovoltaic panels, according to a report by Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF).
At an address to the 5th World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhab yesterday, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and reaffirmed in no uncertain terms China's stand on clean and renewable energy.
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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