Japan Joins United Nations System for Tracking Emission Trades

November 14, 2007 (Bloomberg) – Japan connected to a United Nations computer system to track greenhouse-gas trading under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, less than two months before the compliance period of the treaty begins, at the beginning of next year.

The system, known as the International Transaction Log, became operational today, allowing Japan to receive into its registry its certified emission reduction credits, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change said today by e-mail. Switzerland and New Zealand would link with the system by year’s end, it said.

The European Commission, regulator of the world’s biggest emissions-trading program, said in September a test of Europe’s link with the United Nations system would be delayed two months beyond Dec. 1 for technical reasons.

Australia could ratify Kyoto within days

November 15, 2007 (BusinessGreen)- Australia looks set to ratify the Kyoto Protocol later this month after prime ministerial front-runner Kevin Rudd said he would sign immediately if elected. Rudd, leader of the opposing Labor party, announced the plan this week alongside a $900m Clean Energy Plan to tackle Australia’s growing environmental crisis.

Investment banks (in India) focus on clean-tech firms

November 15, 2007 (LiveMint WSJ) – In an attempt to tap a growing desire among private equity (PE) and venture capital (VC) investors to invest in companies in the clean technology and clean energy business, investment bankers and a few other firms are creating arms that will focus on such companies. The smaller banks see this as a way to differentiate themselves in an increasingly competitive financial services market.

Australia’s Labor promises A$1 billion for clean energy, closer Asia ties, climate fight

November 14, 2007 (Reuters) – Australian Labor Party leader Kevin Rudd promised A$1 billion for clean energy and closer Asian ties on Wednesday if he wins the nation’s Nov. 24 election, painting himself as a catalyst for generational change.

Rudd, holding a strong lead over conservative Prime Minister John Howard in polls, accused Howard of having no ideas ahead of his promised retirement in two years and said Australia’s respect in the world had plummeted during Howard’s 11-year rule.

Rudd officially launched his election campaign before cheering supporters in his home town of Brisbane in crucial Queensland state, with A$2.3 billion ($2 billion) of promises for families and green energy to help avert global warming.

Australian Jatropha Company Looks to Raise A$10m from IPO

November 14, 2007 (Biofuel Review) – A new Australian company, Jatoil Limited, formed to invest in the global market for biofuels, has announced an initial public offering to raise up to Aus$10 million ahead of its planned listing on the ASX on 12 December. According to the company it will supply rising international demand for biofuels by both growing and selling low-cost biodiesel feedstock overseas. The company’s main business will be the supply of Jatropha oil. It will, it says, develop its Jatropha feedstock supplies with local partners, initially in Asia, to supply the local Asian economies where the feedstock is grown and the European Union.

World takes note of Mumbai start-up’s waste-to-fuel tech

November 14, 2007 (LiveMint WSJ) – A Mumbai start-up may have well discovered a way to convert plastic, organic and electronic waste into petroleum without the usual harmful residue, and, emboldened by encouraging results from tests in the Netherlands, West Asia, and Malaysia, is now setting up plants that can process 25 tonnes of plastic a day in Austria, Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands. Such plants, which cost $2-3 million (Rs7.88-11.82 crore) each, can produce up to 25,000 litres of petroleum a day, at an operating cost of Rs12 a litre (excluding cost of raw materials).

Plastic-to-petrol technologies aren’t new, but most of them have proved commercially unviable for a variety of reasons including poor quality of fuel produced or the ability to process only particular kinds of plastic waste.

Generating (Solar) Power Everywhere

November 12, 2007 (Credit Suisse Equity Research) – The first solar modules of the 1950s achieved an efficiency of just 6 percent. The figure for today’s silicon-based cells is over 20 percent, meaning that more than a fifth of the captured sunlight is turned into electrical energy. The current world record is held by special cells for satellite applications, which are over 40 percent efficient. Low-cost solar energy will likely be available everywhere in just a few years’ time, with a corresponding shift in the structure of energy generation away from central power plants toward more local installations.

Anticipated Cost Savings

Measures to reduce the cost of siliconbased solar cells: raw materials consumption per cell is to be reduced by approximately 12 percent per year while efficiency is increased.

Source : European Photovoltaic Industry Association

Sun Rises on Solar Energy

November 12, 2007 (Credit Suisse Equity Research) – In less than two hours, enough solar energy reaches the surface of the earth to satisfy the entire energy needs of the world’s population for a full year. At least, that’s the theory. In practice, solar cells generate not even 0.1 percent of the electricity produced around the globe. The potential is therefore huge, and the political will to promote environmentally friendly power generation is growing steadily.

New energy policy will let Singaporeans choose electricity providers

November 13, 2007 (CSR Asia) – Singapore has just launched a new National Energy Policy Report (available at http://www.mti.gov.sg) unveiling six key strategies an inter-ministry group called the Energy Policy Group will focus on. Attracting most attention is news that households in Singapore will be able to choose their electricity supplier, which theoretically will give them the option to choose ‘greener’ providers. The report also includes policies on energy efficiency and growing the renewable energy sector. A review of the report will be included in next week’s CSR Asia Weekly.

In new take on carbon-trading, Indonesia may get paid to save trees

November 14, 2007 (Christian Science Monitor) – For decades, conservationists have sought to halt the wholesale clearance of Indonesia’s tropical rainforests by loggers and plantation companies. But repeated calls for sustainable forestry practices to safeguard biodiversity haven’t succeeded in stopping the chain saws.

Now, help may be arriving in the shape of a carbon-trading program that would effectively pay Indonesia and other forest-rich countries not to chop down their trees. Behind the initiative is the potential monetary value – as yet unrealized – of tropical forests as vast stocks of carbon that the industrialized world can offset against greenhouse-gas emissions.