Renewable energy companies from China and Hong Kong are facing debts of USD3.5 billion this year and the equivalent of USD5.3 billion of notes due next year, according to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald, citing Bloomberg data.
Greening global trade is a vital step to achieving sustainable development, and developing countries are well positioned to help catalyze this transition, according to a new report released today by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
The European Commission on Saturday announced it had initiated an anti-subsidy investigation into imports of solar glass from China acting on a compliant by the association EU ProSun Glass.
Allowing carbon markets to collapse would be a “disaster” as they are a key driver for investment in the biggest emerging nations’ greenhouse-gas reducing efforts, according to the Center for American Progress.
Geothermal company Ormat Technologies says that Sarulla Operations has signed joint operating and energy sales contracts for its 330-MW Sarulla geothermal power project in Indonesia.
China auto makers Zhejiang Geely and Dongfeng Motor may back out of plans to buy out troubled US electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer Fisker Automotive over failure to agree on a loan agreement with the US government.
If the deal falls through, the California-based company’s future would be up in the air as it is due to make a loan repayment next month.
The fascinating end game being played over Suntech Power Holdings, the world’s biggest solar PV manufacturer in 2011, is rapidly gathering pace.
On Monday news broke that 60 percent of the company’s bondholders have entered a forbearance agreement under which they will not press for repayment of their loans, due this Friday, until 15 May. Given that Bank of China, one of the Wuxi, Jiangsu-based company’s largest creditors, had initiated legal proceeding for unpaid debt, the agreement should have come as a relief to some.
China is looking optimistically at taking a bigger role in America’s booming shale gas industry as the Asian country’s biggest players shop for opportunities in the US market, despite almost certain push back from the US government and other stakeholders.
Armed with a wheel barrow full of government cash, China’s largest oil company, China National Petroleum Corp, is seeking to take a prominent seat at the high-stakes energy table in North America.
The US notched up a massive clean energy trade surplus with China in 2011 despite conventional beliefs that the latter is dominating the world’s renewable energy sector, according to a new report by The Pew Charitable Trusts.
Considering all aspects of the value chain, US exports and trade to China actually exceeded Chinese exports to the United States by USD1.63 billion in 2011, the report, Advantage America: The U.S.-China Clean Energy Technology Trade Relationship in 2011, states.
Suntech’s problems just seem to get worse every moment with news yesterday that the debt-ridden Chinese solar manufacturer is being sued by the Bank of China (BoC) over unpaid debt.
According to the 21st Century Business Herald, the BoC filed suit some time ago and a hearing is expected to take place this month. This, the newspaper says, signifies that further loans for the oft bailed-out firm are unlikely.
A board of seven Chinese lenders led by BoC was formed in the fourth quarter last year as the company's billions worth of debts were due to mature, the newspaper quoted an unnamed source as saying.
China’s tax authorities will wait at least another year to introduce a tax on carbon, deferring to concern that economic growth might suffer, according to a Ministry of Finance (MoF) official.
Planning for a carbon tax has been underway since China’s 12th Five-year Plan was announced two years ago. At the beginning of last year MoF experts suggested levying a carbon tax in 2012 at 10 yuan (USD1.6) per tonne of CO2, increasing to 50 yuan (USD8) per tonne by 2020. Just last month Jia Chen, head of the Ministry of Finance’s Tax Policy Division, revealed a new set of taxation policies, including a tax on CO2 emissions, designed to preserve the environment.
China has issued environmental protection guidelines for the country’s companies to follow when investing overseas, calling on them to pay more attention to pollution and its impact on local communities.
A green bond issuance by the Export-Import Bank of Korea (Eximbank) has raised USD500 million. The state-run bank said it would use the cash to finance green energy projects.
Asia is expected to become the world's second-largest natural gas market by 2015, even though it is dominated by long-term contracts in which prices are linked to that of oil which keeps prices much higher than those in other parts of the world, according to a new report by the International Energy Agency (IEA).
In the report the IEA shows how the Asia-Pacific region's natural-gas market can evolve from one oil-linked prices, which has raised serious questions about the sustainability of the system and its effects on Asian competitiveness, to one featuring a more competitive and dynamic network of trading hubs in which prices better reflect local gas demand and supply.
A Korean environmental tech company is planning to list on the Korean Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (KOSDAQ) in the first half of this year, according to a company official.
Issues of poor corporate governance in China's clean tech companies have returned as Trony Solar told the Hong Kong stock exchange that its audit committee dealing with questionable accounting issues had resigned.
Sustainability consultancy SolAbility has released the results of its 6th annual Korean ESG review showing that while sustainably managed companies continue to outperform, problem areas remain.
India’s second largest power company, Tata Power, may look around for partners to help it double its renewable energy generating capacity over the next five years, according to a Bloomberg report.
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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