Perspective

The COP17 climate talks in Durban have come to an end with 16,000 delegates from 190 countries having struggled for a fortnight with the sheer procedural difficulties of negotiation on that scale. The drama of shifting alliances, with the less developed nations and island states siding with the EU to fire a warning shot across the bows of the BASIC block (or should that now be the BASICUS block) was diverting, but it is no surprise that the new roadmap for international action on climate change doesn't actually provide much guidance to the future.

Malaysia's new renewable energy feed-in-tariff (FiT) regime has had mixed results since applications opened at the beginning of the month. While almost the entire allocation of FiT budget earmarked for solar photovoltaic (PV) projects through to the middle of 2014 was applied for within 24 hours, other types of renewables covered by the scheme have proven to be considerably less popular thus far. The country is following the familiar FiT model but with a quota system for different types of renewable energy (RE), designed to avoid the bubbles in RE project development as seen in the European solar sector.

It's 10 days out from the start of COP17, the UN Climate Change Conference 2011 being held in Durban, South Africa, and the level of anticipation can best be described as flaccid. Two years ago many people were excited and inspired by the prospects of the Copenhagen conference (remember Hopenhagen?) and a year ago there was at least plenty of media buzz about whether anything could be rescued from the COP15 train wreck at Cancún. This time around the lack of interest pretty much defines the outcome: the Europeans will be earnest, the BASIC block will be intransigent and the Americans will be irrelevant.

Sceptical views on man-made climate change have received far less newspaper coverage in major developing countries than in the United Kingdom or the United States, according to a survey. In the United States, over a third of climate articles published during the study period in selected newspapers reported sceptical standpoints while less than eight per cent of articles did so in Brazil, China and India

With news of another oil spill, this time off the coast of New Zealand, requests have been made for people to send knitted sweaters for the rescued penguins. 100 percent wool only, and yes, this is 100 percent true. There is a strong link between knitting jumpers for penguins, dealing with the consequences of our consumer society, swap parties and being happier.

One simply cannot ignore the Burma/China debate over the Myitsone hydropower plant project, which the Burmese president Thein Sein cancelled unexpectedly earlier this month. The story has the cynics guffawing in the aisles. On the one hand you have a Chinese state administration spluttering out excuses as it attempts to get its collective brain around a poor and owing neighbour putting two fingers up at its attempts to "help" it develop. On the other you have a state media returning to the age of Chairman Mao with a series of nauseatingly fawning pieces of state propaganda.

As if China's solar panel makers weren't suffering enough as their industry goes through its worst-ever downturn, things could soon get much worse as Western governments prepare to roll out punitive tariffs to protest unfair subsidies from Beijing.

Most of the time, threats to the environment are reported in a negative light. In Hong Kong, land and sea developments that can adversely affect the environment are readily reported in the news media, such as the proposal for a third runway at the Hong Kong International Airport, or the construction of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge, both of which have the potential of spawning environmental impacts beyond human health thresholds.

Today you’ll hear sustainable development mentioned everywhere from promoting the latest app, at a shoe launch or painted in bold across bill boards (add to this list every time you hear the word “sustainable”).