November 22, 2007 (Reuters) – A certification process was launched on Thursday enabling palm oil producers meeting stringent environment standards to label their products as eco-friendly.
Palm oil companies that meet the criteria set by an industry-led initiative, the Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil, will be able to market their certified “green products” in global markets.
November 23, 2007 (BioPact) – The US Department of Energy’s Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) agency, is in talks with several Indian government departments for creating a biomass roadmap for India similar to the one being planned with China. Mark Ginsberg, Senior Executive Board Member for the EERE Board of Directors announced this on the sidelines of a conference on ‘Efficient Use of Energy and Alternative Systems’ in Mumbai.
November 22, 2007 (AFP) – China will seek to increase cooperation with Asian nations on climate change and will try to freeze its key pollution emissions at 2005 levels, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao said Wednesday.Wen said he would propose an international climate change forum in China next year to improve the region’s ability to address global warming.
“China in the next five years will be determined to reduce energy consumption by 20 percent (per unit of GDP) to reduce carbon emissions and will strive to keep carbon emissions at 2005 levels,” Wen told journalists.
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.
November 22, 2007 (Forbes) – Leaders of 16 Asian nations including China and India signed a pact on the environment Wednesday, pledging action on climate change and forest cover, and promoting the use of nuclear energy. The East Asia Summit members threw their support behind a UN plan as the ‘core mechanism’ for tackling global warming.
Nearly 500,000 people in 8,000 Chhattisgarh villages will soon earn a livelihood from growing jatropha plants, the oil from which is used to produce bio-fuel.
Indian Oil Corp (IOC) has inked a pact with Chhattisgarh Renewable Energy Development Agency (Creda) this week to float a joint venture for jatropha plantations on a wide scale in the next 5-6 years, according to official sources here Wednesday. ‘No less than 500,000 people will get jobs across the state during the next 4-5 years due to these jatropha plantations,’ a senior Creda official told IANS. ‘The memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between IOC and Creda Nov 19 here for a joint venture for massive jatropha plantations in the state would produce 300 tonnes of bio-fuel per day in the next 4-5 years.
November 22, 2007 (Rediff News) – The Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), US Department of Energy, is in talks with several Indian government departments for creating a bio-mass roadmap for India similar to the one being planned with China.
The US department has also begun to undertake pilot projects in West Bengal for setting up green buildings.
November 22, 2007 (Herald Sun) – RENEWABLE energy company Solar Systems says it has developed a way of converting solar power into electricity around the clock, even when the sun is not shining.
Managing director Dave Holland told BusinessDaily that although the process, which produces hydrogen and stores it, is still years from connecting to the electricity grid, it has been demonstrated to produce baseload power.
EnergyQuest this week said it is providing coal-gasification technology for two plants expected to create 1.2 gigawatts of energy in India.
The news from the Henderson, Nev.-based company was the first many had heard about the plants, which experts said could become India’s largest foray into the controversial “clean coal” arena.
November 16, 2007 (Gippsland Friends) – SOLAR thermal electricity generation soon to be used to power the northwestern Queensland town of Cloncurry is tipped to be the way of the future. And if it proves an engineering and financial success, the State Government will look at building green generators in other towns. Cloncurry’s solar thermal electricity station will annually save about 25,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide currently produced by burning diesel to generate electricity.
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