In spite of continued global opposition, including the US Department of State, the Laos government has announced it will go-ahead with the Xayaburi dam on the lower Mekong River. According to media reports, a formal ground-breaking ceremony for the USD3.6 billion project will be held on Wednesday.
In a statement issued yesterday the department strongly criticized the decision to go ahead with the project, saying it could affect tens of millions of livelihoods and trigger a dam-building spree along Southeast Asia's mightiest waterway.
Total cumulative (PV) installations in Southeast Asia are forecast to reach almost 5-GW by 2016, according to the latest report from IMS Research and, perhaps more illuminating, is that Indonesia is predicted to become the fastest-growing market in the region, overtaking Thailand as it installs close to 1-GW of new capacity.
The report, which analyses the PV markets in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore and Philippines, reveals that the region will grow at 50 percent per year on average over the next five years. Installations have previously been dominated by Thailand, however, other regions are also forecast to quickly and account for significant share of the market.
The Asian Development Bank is considering providing funds to a controversial 400-MW dam project on the Xekong River, a major tributary of the Mekong River, which could have adverse downstream impacts.
Last week the Lao government signed a concession agreement with the Xe Pian Xe Namnoy Power Company, in which Ratchaburi Electricity Generating Holding – Thailand's largest private power producer – holds a 25 percent stake. Another 26 percent is held by Korea’s SK Engineering and Construction, 25 percent by Korea Western Power and 24 percent by Lao Holding State Enterprise.
Japan is beginning to take the development of an off-shore wind industry seriously as shown with the unveiling last week of a 126-meter-tall turbine – the country’s largest to date – off the coast of Chōshi, the easternmost city in the Greater Tokyo Area.
A variety of Japanese experts have championed the development of marine wind turbines which they say have much more potential than their land-based counterparts in this small mountainous country.
US-based global retail giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc has given its suppliers five years to comply with its environmental rules or risk being pushed off its shelves. The new requirements, announced in China where Wal-Mart has more than 20,000 suppliers, will compel them to improve on energy efficiency, waste reduction and other markers on the retailer’s checklist.
Wal-Mart said the checklist, introduced in 2009, was voluntary. But if suppliers fall short, they could be cut off from the discount stores wholesale warehouses that the company operates in the United States.
Impacts of actions under Reduction of Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) – a UN mechanism to stem deforestation and degradation – on biodiversity and carbon vary across forest types and landscape conditions, a new global assessment shows.
Key findings of the preliminary assessment of links between biodiversity, carbon, forests and people, prepared by the International Union of Forest Research Organizations’ Global Forest Experts Panel (GFEP), were released recently at the international biodiversity meeting in Hyderabad.
Ernst & Young's second Cleantech Matters on Global Competitiveness shows an industry dominated by Asia, in financial turmoil, but with a positive outlook. The report looked both at what it describes pure-play cleantech companies and cleantech use by 100 global companies with revenues of USD1 billion or more.
While the global companies had a positive attitude to the future of renewable energy and cleantech innovations, financing projects and government policies remained a concern. For the cleantech companies revenues might be on the increase but debt levels have risen and the churn of those in the Ernst & Young index reflect a turbulent and competitive sector.
The October 10 ruling by the US Department of Commerce against PV modules containing Chinese-produced solar cells is just the most recent development in a string of trade disputes that stretch across the globe.
Until now, much of the discussion has focused on the details of each case, the potential effect on different manufacturers, technology types, etc.
But perhaps the bigger question is how these issues collectively will affect the main issue confronting the PV industry today: the supply/demand imbalance. Supply/demand issues are not simply confined to upstream (manufacturer stock levels) and downstream (warehouse/distributor) inventory levels.
An international meeting on biodiversity has called for more science-based information, the closure of knowledge gaps, and increased precaution, in the emerging fields of synthetic biology and geo-engineering (climate engineering).
Two decisions related to these areas, among a set of 34 decisions adopted at the 11th Conference of Parties (COP 11) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which took place in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad this month (8–19 October).
Hong Kong's seizure of nearly four tonnes of smuggled ivory, worth about USD3.4 million, highlights once again China's significant role in the global trade of endangered species.
According to Hong Kong's customs officials, they made their biggest ever haul of endangered species product following a tip-off from mainland Chinese police. While the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Crime scorecard says China is making some progress in key aspects of compliance and enforcement of rhino and tiger trade, it is flagged for failing on key aspects of compliance or enforcement for the illegal trade in elephant products, primarily ivory.
Despite continuous rounds of incentives by the Chinese government to try and tempt its citizens into buying energy-saving vehicles, actual sales continue to disappoint.
Apathy by car dealers and buyers has meant little progress has been made even after China allocated 6 billion yuan (USD952 million) in May to promote the sales of energy-efficient autos with engine displacement of 1.6 liters or less.
This was in addition to the 12 billion yuan China offered as special subsidies for energy-saving vehicles in 2010.
A damning new study on the global luxury leather industry has been released by NGO Human Rights Watch which claims workers in many leather tanneries in the Hazaribagh neighborhood of Dhaka, the Bangladesh capital, including children as young as 11, become ill because of exposure to hazardous chemicals and are injured in horrific workplace accidents.
Released last week, the study says that the tanneries, which export hundreds of millions of dollars in leather for luxury goods throughout the world, are also spewing pollutants into surrounding communities.
South Korea’s Ministry of Environment has outlined its plan for the control of Green House Gas (GHG) emissions from its major industries and may link an energy taxation system to emissions as part of efforts to reduce emissions.
As announced Monday, estimated emissions from 480 companies that are being reined in during 2013 are 590 million tonnes of CO2 and the target is to cut that back to 572 million tonnes for a reduction of 3.02 percent.
Companies that rely on wood, paper and pulp and view sustainable sourcing as merely a nice extra to polish their green credentials should take note of a recent report from the UN Environment Program (UNEP) and INTERPOL which found that between 50 to 90 per cent of logging in key tropical countries is being carried out by organized crime.
The report estimated that criminal syndicates are involved in logging worth USD30 billion and accounting for as much as 90 per cent of tropical deforestation. It estimated that illegal logging accounts for between 15 and 30 per cent of the world’s timber trade.
India will invest USD50 million over the next two years to strengthen conservation of biological diversity, the variety of life on Earth, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced yesterday.
Called the Hyderabad Pledge, much of the money million will be invested in India during its current two-year presidency of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) an international treaty with 193 governments participating.
South Korea’s economy ministry said today that it wants companies to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 3 percent to 553.4 million tonnes next year, effectively doubling the reductions achieved in 2012, as it prepares for its new cap-and-trade scheme starting in 2015.
The local industrial and power sectors are on track to record emission of 570.6 million tonnes this year which is a reduction of 8 million tonnes or 1.42 percent over 2011. The ministry said it wants to see further cuts of 17.2 million in 2013.
On 10 October 2012, the US Department of Commerce (DoC) issued its final ruling on the countervailing duty (CVD) and anti-dumping (AD) complaints.
The process to determine final rates has taken almost exactly one year and the entire complaint will be either confirmed or denied by mid-November 2012. The complaints, brought by the Coalition for American Solar Manufacturing (CASM) and spearheaded by SolarWorld, were a response to rapidly falling PV module average selling prices (ASPs) which has been pressuring solar manufacturer margins for over two years.
China's debt-ridden Suntech Power Holdings has outlined a new strategy to improve operations and build revenues but it is unlikely to reassure shareholders.
The solar PV maker's recently appointed CEO, David King said in a statement: “Trade protectionism and an imbalance between demand and supply have contributed to increasing competition and declining profitability for solar manufacturers globally. In this environment, it is imperative that we focus on what we do best and take decisive actions to solidify our market leadership.”
CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets recently released estimates confirm that Japan’s drive to ramp up renewable energy supplies is having a big impact. The firm reckons Japan could have 17.3-GW of installed solar power capacity by 2014 while wind power will be less than half that, at an estimated 7.6-GW of total capacity by 2016, with most coming from off-shore projects.
Bloomberg New Energy Finance, meanwhile, estimates investment in solar, wind and other forms of clean energy could double to USD17.1 billion this year from USD8.6 billion in 2011.
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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