March 3, 2008 (The Edge Daily) – Carbon Capital Corp Sdn Bhd will launch RM150 million worth of biogas and biomass projects in Sarawak next month as part of its long-term strategy for growth.
“We will be launching four biogas projects and one 10 megawatt biomass power plant there, utilising empty fruit bunches (from oil palm).
“These are all projects which we will be investing in and developing 100%,” Carbon Capital group managing director William Kho said.
Spring 2008 (YES! Magazine, Anna Fahey) – Last summer, Chinese President Hu Jintao toured the country in short sleeves to show that his countrymen could turn their air conditioners down. In China, conservation is “in.” Fashions do change.
Global warming denial is out of vogue. Unfortunately, though, the climate change do-nothing set is sporting a new line: “Why should we bother fighting climate change when China’s emissions are increasing?”
February 14, 2008 (New Zealand Herald) – Ministers and officials are grappling with some thorny issues over how to parcel out more than $1 billion worth of free carbon credits to the owners of commercial forests planted before 1990. They ought to have better things to do with their time.
Under the rules of the Kyoto Protocol, if a forest planted before 1990 is harvested and not replanted, the carbon stored in those trees (about 800 tonnes a hectare for a radiata pine forest) is deemed to be emitted then and there, and the country is liable for those emissions. Continue reading
February 11, 2008 (Bangkok Post) – To cope with high oil prices and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Thailand must pursue four options: development of renewable energy, energy efficiency, nuclear energy and carbon capture and storage. However, renewable energy has certain limitations, and options for each country are different depending on availability of natural resources, technologies and manpower. This is why the Thai government has mainly concentrated on renewable energy based on domestic raw materials and wastes.
Financial incentives together with the provision of information to investors and consumers have proved to work wonders, for instance in the promotion of biofuels. The consumption of gasohol (E10) more than doubled in 2007. With the introduction of E20 in 2008, daily demand for ethanol should reach two million litres by 2011 when new cars capable of using E85 should be on sale.
February 10, 2008 (Lin Yanqin and Esther Fung) Spiralling oil prices, growing global demand for energy, limited and uncertain supplies from oil-producing countries, climate change from greenhouse gas emissions – these are the challenges faced by a Singapore dependent on imports for energy needs.But even if Singapore has to be a “price-taker” in meeting its energy needs, it can still turn “energy challenges” into “energy opportunities”.
To help make this happen, a master plan – outlined in the National Energy Policy Report – was unveiled by the Minister for Trade and Industry Lim Hng Kiang yesterday, with six strategies mapped out for Singapore’s energy future.
Steps will be taken to improve energy security by diversifying energy sources and the mix of fuels currently used to generate electricity. Plans are also in place to grow the value-add of the energy industry, now worth 20 billion, into a $34-billion industry by 2015, and triple the number of jobs to 15,300.
From: Jeroen van der Veer, Chief Executive
To: All Shell employees
Date: 22 January 2008 Subject: Shell Energy Scenarios
Dear Colleagues
In this letter, I’d like to share reflections about how we see the energy future, and our preferred route to meeting the world’s energy needs. Industry, governments and energy users – that is, all of us – will face the twin challenge of more energy and less CO2.
This letter is based on a text I’ve written for publication in several newspapers in the coming weeks. You can use it in your communications externally. There will be more information about energy scenarios inthe months ahead.
By the year 2100, the world’s energy system will be radically different from today’s. Renewable energy like solar, wind, hydroelectricity and biofuels will make up a large share of the energy mix, and nuclear energy too will have a place.
Mankind will have found ways of dealing with air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. New technologies will have reduced the amount of energy needed to power buildings and vehicles.
January 25, 2008 (AP) – South Africa will ration electricity, increase prices and encourage a switch to solar energy, all part of emergency measures now being undertaken amid power outages that have caused chaos and misery nationwide and threatened to choke economic growth.
Neighbors like Botswana and Namibia, which rely heavily on South African energy exports, have also been badly hit by the disruptions in the region’s economic and political powerhouse. The outages have undermined confidence in South Africa, with more incidents like the stranding of hundreds of people on tourism icon Table Mountain spreading through the media to other countries.
South African businesses have been crippled by the outages, which usually occur without warning. In an indication of the severity of the crisis, major mining companies including AngloGold, Harmony and Gold Fields Ltd. suspended work at some of their mines Friday for fear power cuts would trap workers underground. Continue reading
January 9, 2008 (BBC) – The Chinese government says it is banning shops from handing out free plastic bags from June this year, in a bid to curb pollution. Production of ultra-thin plastic bags will also be banned, the State Council said in a statement.
Instead, people will be encouraged to use baskets or reusable cloth bags for their shopping, the council said.
January 4, 2008 (ClimateChangeCorp.com) – Two Indonesian states determined to halt deforestation are getting ready to sell their forest carbon credits on the voluntary markets.
The Indonesian provinces are not prepared to wait for an international agreement on forestry, they want to start selling forestry credits on the voluntary markets now. The governors of West Papua province and Aceh signed an agreement with the governor of the Amazon region in Brazil at the UN post-Kyoto talks in Bali. They agreed to work together to preserve their rainforests and to help establish international funding to avoid deforestation.
November 21, 2007 (Reuters) – Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda pledged 200 billion yen ($1.83 billion) in loans over the next five years for environmental projects in Asia, officials said on Wednesday.The projects include sewage disposal and sulfur dioxide scrubbing from power plant smoke stacks.
Tokyo also said it was ready to provide up to $10 million for a World Bank fund aimed at preserving forests, an issue Indonesia will push for at a U.N. meeting in Bali next month to try to find a successor to the Kyoto Protocol.
Asia Cleantech 