Malaysia

Spurred on by favorable government policies and incentives, several Asia-Pacific countries outside of China – such as Thailand, Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines, and Malaysia – have begun to make large-scale investments in solar power projects, according to a new report by Frost & Sullivan. The prospects are also attracting the attention of manufacturers in the US and Europe, which are scouting for newer markets in which to conduct business, following the oversupply of solar panels at home.

In the wake of the decision by Hydro Tasmania to withdraw all its staff from a number of controversial dam projects in the Malaysian state of Sarawak, an intense NGO-driven debate is gaining ground in Malaysia over the feasibility of the dam projects against a massive and well-organized opposition from Sarawak's indigenous communities.

As part of its plans to further penetrate the Asian alternative energy market, US-based GE Energy says it plans to begin producing tint-film rooftop solar PV panels in Malaysia within the next two years.

Sarawak's Taib family has come under attack again for being almost single-handedly responsible for the environmental and social destruction befalling the biodiversity-rich Sarawak. A new Bruno Manser Fund study reports that plans to dam virtually all the rivers in the Malaysian state's interior for hydropower will result in “cultural genocide” and the devastation of hundreds of thousands of hectares of rainforest. It also names a number of international companies including Sinohydro and The China Three Gorges Corporation as being complicit

Speaking on the sidelines of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) conference in Singapore, RSPO President Jan-Kees Vis called on China and India to modify their import tariff regimes to support the production of more environmentally friendly palm oil.