Gerry is CleanBiz Asia's associate editor. He has been writing and providing editorial consultancy services for nearly 30 years primarily specialising in financial, business and clean/green areas.
Most recently Gerry held the position of editor of Currency Investor and provides consultancy to web sites and corporate editorial development. Mainly based in Europe now he has worked for the Financial Times magazine group and the BBC.
Past experience in Asia includes working as an equities research editor at UBS Securities (Asia) and Kerry Securities in Hong Kong and producing CNBC programmes during the station’s first year launch. He has also worked for the South China Morning Post and numerous other outlets in the Asia Pacific region. His own web site can be found at www.financial-journalist.co.uk .
There is an intriguing fight developing between clean and renewable business and non-green industries in Burma. In a very public announcement – to reporters in Rangoon – the minister for electricity Khin Maung Soe halted the construction of a Thai-backed coal-fired power station.
It comes only months after the Chinese-funded Myitsone hydroelectric dam was halted after listening to “the people”. This time he said the coal-fired plant at Dawei had raised pollution and environmental concerns.
In all the rush and stupor of the Festive Season there were a couple of intriguing stories that didn't get the notice they deserved. Amidst what US-observers describe as a bleak outlook surrounding federal clean energy policy, it seems there was a victory for those supporting US/China clean energy co-operation and the framework of US/China Clean Energy Research Centers (CERCs) in building energy efficiency (Lawrence Berkeley Lab), electric vehicles (University of Michigan) and clean coal (University of West Virginia).
The Singapore state investment agency has announced an investment fund of USD1.9 billion for north Asia, with part of it marked for clean business and renewable energy.
The cleantech business must be worrying what the news of Haitong Securities pulling its USD1.7 billion Hong Kong initial public offering (IPO) on the grounds of poor market conditions, will do to their prospects.
Guodian Technology and Environment Group, a maker of wind equipment, will price its IPO on Wednesday, expecting to aim to raise about USD643 million. Later this week windfarm developer Beijing Jingneng Clean Energy is expected to price its IPO at around USD300 million.
No-one has been blinded by the fizzling performance of China's solar companies. One after another they have announced falling revenues as they scramble to balance output capacity with demand and slash their costs.Trina Solar, Jinko Solar, LDK Solar, Yingli Solar and Hanwha SolarOne have all cut shipment forecasts for the year with everyone pointing to the falling demand in Europe as feed-in-tariffs have been reduced, although a massive ramping up of production in China has contributed to the problems.
Temperatures are already beginning to rise among delegates at the UN climate summit in Durban. While around the outskirts of conference generally “nice” and “positive” position papers were released, it was the news that Canada certainly won't make any further greenhouse gas cuts and may even withdraw from its conditions under the Kyoto Protocol that got collars sticky.
Additionally rumours on the sidelines indicate that the UN's carbon offset scheme wouldn't be depended upon to generate the USD100 billion in annual climate aid for developing nations by 2020, although there was minor step towards charging for ships' emissions.
Four Asian countries have been named as being among the world's worst perpetrators of deforestation. Indonesia, Cambodia, North Korea and Papua New Guinea were rated as being at 'extreme risk' with economic growth, poverty, corruption and the rise of biofuels being identified as being among the major causes of deforestation.
In addition increasing demand for products like palm oil and an intensifying scrutiny of business and environmental practices at home, have pushed large Asian companies to expand their activities to West Africa in particular.
There has been a flurry of announcements from the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) market, indicating a renewed interest in a “sustainable” goldmine that was worth about USD48.8 billion last year for China alone. One of the developments has been a new database from British researchers.
Last week Wang Guoqiang, China's vice minister of health and also director of the State Administration of TCM said it was important to sustainable development and announced the fourth government supported survey for TCM.
Implications in the cleantech war that is developing globally can be seen in the latest research into R&D investment and innovation.
Research from consultants Booz & Company into the world's top 1,000 spenders on R&D, show that while there had been recovery in spending by North American companies, it was surpassed for a second consecutive year by spending in India and China.
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.
One of China's biggest wind turbine markers, US-listed A-Power Energy Generation Systems is still facing problems with its accountants. It turns out that BDO Daejoo LLC, which previously had agreed to act as its independent auditor, has resigned. In a swift move to overcome criticism its has signed up Simon & Edward, LLP to audit the company's financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2010.
The seedy business of shark fishing is coming under increasing pressure in its own main market – Asia. It's a business that could be worth over USD30 billion a year. The latest move against the business was the announcement of Singapore's supermarket chain Cold Storage (a subsidiary of Dairy Farm International Holdings) that it has joined the WWF Singapore Sustainable Seafood Group with a commitment to stop selling shark fin and shark products in its 42 outlets across the country.
International charity and pressure group Oxfam has released a report highlighting the problems that a modern “land rush” is bringing to poor communities. Fingers have been pointed at palm oil corporations and agribusinesses as being primarily responsible for many of the land deals that have left local communities without homes or livelihoods.The report, Land and Power, says that as many as 227 million hectares have been sold, leased or licensed in large-scale land deals since 2001, mostly by international investors.
NASDAQ has warned China's Cleantech Solutions International it could be thrown off the exchange. The market says Cleantech is in violation of a rule that stipulates shares maintain a USD1.00 minimum bid price to continue being listing on the NASDAQ Global Market. Cleantech's share price fell below USD1.00 for each day of trading over a 30-day period from 27 July to 7 September.
China's US-listed renewable energy companies are in trouble again. The US Securities Exchange Commission has told Chinese transmission and wind turbine manufacturing company A Power that is due to be de-listed.
While other large car companies have been announcing deals to develop new technologies, Mitsubishi New Zealand has signed up SolarCity to provide its new EV car customers with a rooftop solar system, which should pay for the car's use. Laudable as Mitsubishi's marketing strategy is, the scheme brings into sharp focus dark shadows around New Zealand's policy on solar energy.
The announcement of a new wind turbine deal in Vietnam might also highlight the ever-increasing tensions over the resources around the islands of the South China Sea.
Listing rules are being shaken up on the American stock exchanges in the wake of dubious accounting practices by a string of Chinese firms, include a large slice of the US-listed Chinese cleantech sector.
Reports out of Australia indicate that Malaysia is the latest country to plan its own sustainability standard for palm oil producers. The move, however, could cause further confusion over any sustainable label on palm oil products and the justification of the move also calls into question the government's commitment to genuine sustainability.
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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