The Chinese government has signed an agreement with Israeli hydrokinetic developer Eco Wave Power (EWP) in a bid to promote economic trade and collaboration between the two parties.
Despite acknowledging that it will negatively impact rare fish and flora on the upper reaches of Dadu River in Sichuan province, China's environment ministry has approved the construction of the country's tallest hydroelectric dam
The International Hydropower Association (IHA), an industry body that claims to promote the ‘sustainable’ use of hydroenergy, has come under fire over organizing its upcoming World Congress in Sarawak.
The Malaysian state is infamous for corruption and the disfranchisement of its indigenous peoples.
Authorities in Vietnam’s southern Dong Nai Province have asked the country’s National Assembly to reject the two proposed hydro-power projects, Dong Nai 6 and Dong Nai 6A, because of environmental risks.
There has been continuing controversy for two years over the Dong Nai 6 and Dong Nai 6A dam proposals due to their potentially serious environmental impact.
"Residents along Dong Nai River, including those in Ho Chi Minh City, would suffer an unimaginable disaster if the reservoirs of these hydro-power plants broke," said Tran Van Tu, chairman of Dong Nai People's Council, who also heads the group of National Assembly deputies from Dong Nai Province.
Asiapac Green Renewable Corp – a subsidiary of Canadian-registered but Frankfurt-listed Asiapac Capital Services – will enjoy tax perks after the Philippines’ Board of Investment approved its four mini-hydro power projects in the Mountain Province of northern Luzon.
The massive hydroelectric dam building program in Southwest China may have a causal link to the magnitude-7 earthquake that rocked Lushan, in China’s Sichuan province on Saturday, killing 179 and leaving thousands injured and homeless.
The April 20 earthquake occurred along the same Longmenshan Fault Belt as the magnitude-8 tremor that killed more than 80,000 people in Sichuan five years ago. According to Fan Xiao, a geologist and chief engineer of the Regional Geological Survey Team of the Sichuan Geology and Mineral Bureau, the latest quake is likely to have been part of a stress adjustment process, making the region more dangerous after the Wenchuan quake.
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.
Nepal, India and Bangladesh are to jointly develop and finance hydropower projects in the Ganges river basin while Bhutan, India and Bangladesh have also agreed to co-operate on maximizing hydropower potential of the Brahmaputra Basin.
Vietnam is to decommission hydropower plants due to their inefficiency and environmental impact. The People's Committee in the Central Highlands province of Kon Tum have announced the closure of 21 plants with a total capacity of nearly 70-MW.
Nepal is to boost its electricity generating output by 20 percent by building a USD500 million hydropower plant.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is lending USD150 million towards the 140-MW (MW) project. The power situation in the country is dire with blackouts of up to 18 hours a day common in the dry season, even in the capital Kathmandu.
The state government of Odisha (formerly know as Orissa) has established a dedicated public company to provide focused attention to developing small hydro power projects in the Indian state, according to its chief minister, Naveen Patnaik.
The Chinese government reassured India this week that dams it is planning to build on the Brahmaputra River would not impact flood control efforts or the ecological environment in downstream regions.
Laos has signed a land deal for a 390-MW hydroelectric project in the south of the country to supply electricity to Thailand. While final decisions are still awaited for the Xayaburi Dam project, the new USD1.25 billion project in Attapeu and Champassak provinces is expected to start in July.
Vietnam's government is aware of the dangerous repercussions of climate change on energy supplies and demand. Deputy head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade's Institute of Energy, Nguyen Ba Cuong, told a workshop that climate change impacts could cause an increase in demand for energy, leading to an increased dependence on imported energy, especially coal.
The Philippine Stock Exchange will see a sizable renewable energy flotation from the power generation arm of the Sunwest Group of Companies. Plans are still being outlined but currently hydropower holdings are expected to make the majority of the asset base.
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.
At yesterday’s opening session of 19th Mekong River Commission (MRC) Council Meeting, being held in the Laoation city of Luang Prabang, heated debate occurred over the host country’s construction of the Xayaburi Dam and its plans to build a cascade of dams on the Lower Mekong River.
According to participants at the meeting, MRC governments disagreed about the prior consultation procedures and how they had been applied in the case of the Xayaburi Dam. The Cambodian delegation asserted that Laos had misinterpreted the Mekong Agreement and that the prior consultation process had never been completed.
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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