Massive quantities of African ivory are being laundered through shops in Thailand and fueling the elephant poaching crisis, conservation group WWF says. The organization today is launching a global petition asking Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to ban all ivory trade in Thailand in order to curb the illegal killing of African elephants.
Ho Chi Minh City authorities are being pressured to prosecute 25 businesses for violating Vietnam's environmental protection laws. Fines of over USD206,000 have been recommended by inspectors from the Vietnam Environmental Administration under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.
Assets held by Swiss banks on behalf of the Malaysian Taib family could be frozen after 20 Swiss MPs filed a motion in the country’s parliament.
Geneva MP and lawyer Carlo Sommaruga, who is spearheading the move, has also lodged a criminal complaint, asking the Attorney General of Switzerland, Michael Lauber, to declare the Malaysian Taib family a criminal organization.
The private equity arm of investment giant Fidelity International has invested USD54 million in biotechnology company, Richcore Lifesciences. The eight-year old Indian company specializes in biofuel and agricultural industries, among other products and is based in Bangalore.
A major international study scheduled for release at the 1st GLOBE Climate Legislation Summit to be held in London over the next two days will show that 32 of 33 major economies, led by China and Mexico, have progressed or are progressing significant climate and/or energy-related legislation.
The report, produced by the Global Legislators Union (GLOBE) in partnership with the Grantham Research Institute at the London School of Economics and supported by the Climate & Development Knowledge Network (CDKN), shows that 18 countries made “significant” progress in 2012.
Indonesia’s Minister of Agriculture Suswono has praised sustainable palm oil practice in Dosan village, and says this initiative is a perfect example of the way large palm oil producers can remain profitable without further destroying the forests.
A two-day ministerial-level meeting of the Mekong River Commission (MRC) in the Laotian city of Luang Prabang next week is set to put trans-boundary co-operation to the test and with critical decisions to be made on the fate of the Mekong River, vital to the livelihoods of 60 million people.
Ahead of the MRC, which takes place on the January 16-17, the WWF is warning that representatives from Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam must put derailed decision-making on Mekong River mainstream dams back on track or risk sabotaging management of one of the world’s great rivers.
The Climate Group is joining forces with the China Advanced Construction Materials Group (China ACM), one of China’s biggest concrete producers, to tackle one of the biggest side-effects of China’s rapid growth and urbanization: urban construction waste.
Uniqlo, Asia’s biggest global fashion brand and its parent company Fast Retailing Group, have committed to eliminate all releases of hazardous chemicals throughout its entire global supply chain and products by 2020, in response to Greenpeace’s global Detox campaign.
The already dubious shark fin industry in China is coming under new scrutiny after authorities in the province of Zhejiang claim to have found that many of the shark fins sold in markets are artificial and some also contain dangerous toxins.
Maersk Line, the world’s biggest container-shipping company, has fired a warning shot across the bows of the Hong Kong Government, threatening to stop using cleaner fuel at port in Hong Kong next year if there is no regulation in place mandating that all shipping lines do the same.
The Danish shipping line has been a prominent supporter of the Fair Winds Charter, a voluntary scheme by the Hong Kong shipping industry to use fuel of 0.5 percent sulphur content or less “to the maximum extent possible” while at berth in Hong Kong from 1 January 2011 to 31 December 2012.
The Vietnam government has earmarked VND379 billion (USD18 million) for two programs this year to improve environment quality and the country's ability to cope with climate change.
A new study published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology has concluded that the Internet and other information communication and technology (ICT) elements produce over 830 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) a year.
India's Comptroller and Auditor-General (CAG) has upheld findings that pollution from iron ore mining has contributed to the increase in incidence of tuberculosis and other respiratory diseases in the Bellary District in central Karnataka.
As the incidence of respiratory disease increases in the Philippines due to pollution, the head of an environmental group has advocated issuing gas masks free to students. Joey Papa, president of Bangon Kalikasan Movement, said employers should also provide them to their workers in urban areas.
With the year barely out of the gates, reports indicate a bumpy road ahead for palm oil producers, heavily concentrated in Malaysia and Indonesia, with demand faltering and further pressure being brought on the industry by environmentalists.
Bloomberg reported today that a survey it had done suggest palm oil stockpiles in Malaysia were near record highs in December with inventories at about 2.53 million tonnes, barely changed from the 2.56 tonnes of the previous month.
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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