Hokkaido solar farm
Trouble up north a warning sign of Japanese gridlock
Fergus O'Rorke
May 24, 2013
A statement last month from Hokkaido Electric Power Co, which provides electricity to Japan’s northernmost island, that it won’t be able to accommodate more than 400-MW of utility-scale solar-powered generating capacity appears to be having a cooling effect on the industry. SB Energy, the renewable power arm of Softbank Corp, is reported by the Kyoto News agency to be re-evaluating the feasibility of three solar projects in the prefecture with a total planned capacity of 180-MW.
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Buddha looking at China's coal
China zeros in on peak CO2 emissions, looks to new controls
CleanBiz.Asia Staff
May 23, 2013
China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) is looking at an accelerated timetable under which the country’s greenhouse gases emission will peak, with an expert source suggesting this could be as soon as 2025. The Commission is also planning to implement a carbon emissions control system during China’s 13th 5-Year Plan period (2016-2020) that will, for the first time, set a target for the country’s total CO2 emissions. This is in addition to targets for carbon and energy intensity per unit of GDP, which are being applied under the current 5-year plan.
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Philippines approves delayed wind projects
Philippines finally approves projects under delayed FiT
CleanBiz.Asia Staff
May 23, 2013
The Philippines’ Department of Energy has finally given the go ahead for three proposed wind farms, with a generating capacity totaling 208.5-MW, as the country looks to escalate the development of its wind power potential, estimated to be 76-GW. These approvals are the first to be given under the country’s feed-in tariff (FiT) scheme for renewable energy. While there has been plenty of interest from local and international investors in the Philippines wind sector since the passing of the country’s Renewable Energy Law in 2008, regulatory developments have been slow.
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Resource Governance
Asia-Pacific countries weak in natural resource governance
CleanBiz.Asia Staff
May 22, 2013
A good deal of secrecy is still prevalent in how natural resources are managed by countries in the Asia Pacific region, according to the Resource Governance Index released by the Revenue Watch Institute. The Index measures transparency and accountability in the oil, gas and mining industries in 58 countries worldwide, including 12 in Asia-Pacific where these industries play an important role. While none of the Apac dozen made it into the top “Satisfactory” segment, India, Timor-Leste and Indonesia made up the top three in the “Partial” segment.
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Armstrong Asset Management and IFC funding Thai solar plant
Armstrong gets IFC $20 mln, funds first SE Asia solar project
CleanBiz.Asia Staff
May 16, 2013
Singapore-based Armstrong Asset Management has received a fourth commitment of a USD20 million investment for its Armstrong South East Asia Clean Energy Fund from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), to add to its first close of USD65 million. The fund, a newly established, independent private-equity vehicle providing development capital to small-scale renewable energy and resource efficiency projects in Southeast Asia, is targeting a final close of USD150 million by August 2013.
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Bangladesh factory safety
Retailers sign up to finance safety in Bangladesh factories
CleanBiz.Asia Staff
May 15, 2013
In the wake of last month’s Rana Plaza disaster some of the world's top clothing retailers – including PVH, Tchibo, H&M, Inditex (which owns the Zara chain), Marks & Spencer, Primark and Tesco – have signed up to a legally binding agreement to help finance fire safety and building improvements in the factories they use in Bangladesh. The official death toll from the collapse of the factory build now stands at 1,127, with 2,438 people injured – many seriously - and another 98 still listed as missing. This makes it the world's worst industrial accident since the Bhopal disaster in India in 1984.
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Air Pacific's shark scandal
Fiji’s airline outed for role in shark fin trade
CleanBiz.Asia Staff
May 15, 2013
Air Pacific, Fiji’s international airline, has been accused of hypocrisy for backing shark conservation for public relations while flying shark fins to HK. Last year the airline sponsored “Happy Hearts Love Sharks”, a contest run by the Hong Kong Shark Foundation, which was aimed at encouraging newlyweds to set an example by not serving dishes containing shark fin during wedding banquets. The international trade in shark fin, centered in Hong Kong, is blamed for decimating shark populations.
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Aircraft emissions look pretty sometimes
Airlines like idea of offsetting carbon emissions but not caps
CleanBiz.Asia Staff
May 14, 2013
According to reports emanating from Montreal, ahead of a three-day symposium on Aviation and Climate Change being held by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the civil aviation industry is edging toward embracing a mandatory scheme for offsetting its greenhouse gas emissions. ICAO, a United Nations body, has been tasked with developing a global plan to manage aviation emissions in time for its triennial assembly in September.
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Protestors outside Primak
Capital disaster – don’t do Dhaka unless you really have to
CleanBiz.Asia Staff
May 09, 2013
With the death toll from last month’s collapse of Rana Plaza now past 900, the fall-out from Bangladesh's worst industrial disaster will be felt well beyond Dhaka’s slums and tenements. Karl Borgschulze of Consulting Services International, who has been working on CSR issues within the Bangladeshi garment and textile industry since 2005, shared his views with CleanBiz.Asia.
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An Indian solar farm
India closing thin-film loophole in solar local content rules
Fergus O'Rorke
May 08, 2013
India intends to level the playing field between solar photovoltaic (PV) power modules made from crystalline silicon and those using various thin-film technologies during the country’s next grid-connected solar PV power capacity auction due to start at the end of this month. During the first phase of the country’s Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM) – under which solar PV and solar thermal were each allocated 500-MW of capacity – there was a mandate that 60 per cent of equipment by value was to be locally sourced for solar PV projects and 30 percent for solar thermal projects.
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Solar panels installed on a bicycle
Game on in Burma’s nascent solar power market
CleanBiz.Asia Staff
May 08, 2013
Burma's first solar power plant - a 210-MW project which its developer claims will be the world’s third largest – is to be built within the next 21-months to provide a much-needed boost to the country’s electricity generating capacity. The developer, Thailand’s Green Earth Power (GEP), has signed a memorandum of understanding with Myanmar's Ministry of Electric Power for what will be the country's first solar power plant, with a total project cost of USD275 million. GEP president and chairman Paul Bernard Yang said the company would sign the power purchase agreement (PPA) with the Ministry of Electric Power within the next 90 days.
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Apple store at Hysan Place
Activists call for lights-out at Apple’s Hong Kong stores
CleanBiz.Asia Staff
May 06, 2013
Apple's latest store in the shopping metropolis of Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay has come under fire from green activists, who have been pressing hard to fight for tougher control over light pollution. The US tech giant opened its latest Hong Kong store in the new state-of-the-art Hysan Place shopping mall, which has been awarded the prestigious LEED Platinum Green Building Certification. It seems, however, that Apple, which likes to talk about its comprehensive approach to environmental responsibility, is not stepping up to the plate.
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Trash bin littered with polystyrene lunch boxes
After 14 year ban, polystyrene gets a pass in China
CleanBiz.Asia Staff
May 03, 2013
Using disposable polystyrene tableware is now okay in China after the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) overturned a 14-year ban earlier this week, much to the dismay of environmentalists and community groups. The ban was imposed by the now defunct State Economic and Trade Commission in 1999 due to environmental damage from its production and use. The NDRC now says disposable polystyrene tableware not only conforms to national food wrapping standards, but also can be recycled to make construction materials, paints and stationery.
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FGIFCC HK
$20-tln coalition convenes 1st global climate investor forum
CleanBiz.Asia Staff
May 03, 2013
The Asia Investor Group on Climate Change (AIGCC), together with its peers from the Global Investor Coalition on Climate Change, is hosting the first global summit to address climate change risks and low carbon investing next month. The two day event – to be held at Hong Kong’s Four Seasons Hotel on 13-14 June – is being billed as “historic” for the international financial community as investors and financial institutions from both developed and emerging markets gather for the first time to discuss the challenges presented by a changing climate.
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APAC carbon disclosure landscape
Most big business gets carbon reporting wrong, Asia still trails
CleanBiz.Asia Staff
May 02, 2013
A majority of the world’s largest companies are either failing to report their greenhouse gas emissions or doing so incorrectly according to a new study from the Environmental Investment Organisation (EIO), a UK-based climate change and finance think tank. Looking at carbon emission reports covering 2011 – the most recent year where a full set of data is available – the EIO found that only 37 percent of the world’s largest 800 companies are reporting complete data and correctly adopting the basic principles of greenhouse gas emissions reporting. Just 21 percent had their data externally verified.
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Mekong river forest
Forest loss highlight need for green growth along the Mekong
CleanBiz.Asia Staff
May 02, 2013
Southeast Asia’s Greater Mekong sub-region – a biodiversity hot spot – risks losing more than a third of its remaining forest cover within the next two decades if governments fail to boost protection, value and restore natural capital, and embrace green growth, warns a new WWF report. WWF’s analysis reveals the Greater Mekong has retained about 98 million hectares of natural forest, just over half of the region’s land area, but further rapid loss is expected if current deforestation rates persist. Between 1973 and 2009, the five countries of the Greater Mekong lost just under one-third of their remaining forest cover.
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China climate actions
Australia calls China global leader in climate change fight
CleanBiz.Asia Staff
April 29, 2013
A new report by Australia’s Climate Commission says that China is one of the world’s bright spots in global action to curb the effects of climate change. Though China remains the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitter, the report, The Critical Decade: global action building on climate change,  found that in 2012 China reduced the carbon intensity of its economy more than expected and almost halved the rate of growth for electricity demand.
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Dong Nai Hydro Plants
Vietnam’s leaders asked to kill controversial hydro projects
CleanBiz.Asia Staff
April 29, 2013
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.
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Worldwide material consumption 1970-2008
Asia material consumption more than rest of world combined
CleanBiz.Asia Staff
April 25, 2013
Asia Pacific has surpassed the rest of the world in its consumption of materials and will continue to dominate world material flows, according to a new UN Environment Programme (UNEP) report released today. The region’s trade balance indicates that the current rate of exploitation of its resource base is no longer sufficient to support the region’s fast-growing economies and changing lifestyles. From 1970-2008, consumption of construction minerals increased 13.4 times, metal ores and industrial minerals consumption 8.6, fossil fuels 5.4, and biomass 2.7 times.
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Indian new solar plants will receive subsidies from gov
India to offer big construction subsidies for new solar plants
CleanBiz.Asia Staff
April 24, 2013
Draft guidelines from Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) show India’s central government is prepared to offer subsidies of up to 30 percent on new solar plants, totaling 750-MW of capacity, to be built under Phase-II, Batch-1 of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM). This is the first time such extensive direct grants, made under a “Viability Gap Funding” (VGF) scheme, have been offered to India’s solar power industry. The government, which has previously used the funding model to build roads, railways and coal-fired power plants, is seeking to boost renewable-energy output to curb chronic blackouts that shave an estimated 1.2 percentage points off annual economic growth.
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