Event - OWP Japan Offshore Wind Power

OWP Japan (Offshore Wind Power) will take place on May 16-17, 2019 in Tokyo, JAPAN. The Key highlights of the agenda include the following:

Offshore wind opportunities in Japan and a regulator’s perspectives. How to construct a successful offshore wind partnership in Japan. Pilot case studies experiences including lessons from Taiwan and Europe. Financing and funding options as well as strategies for offshore wind projects. Offshore wind project risk, mitigation and insurance. Creating the supply chain – needs and opportunities. Offshore wind technologies for the Japanese environment.

Victory for Responsible Palm Oil Plantations

A multi-year campaign from organizations like Greenpeace, Rainforest Action Network, and the Forest Trust has managed to arrest deforestation and human rights abuses from palm oil plantations. One of the last big company holdouts has finally agreed to purchase palm only exclusively from responsible sources. The Singapore based company known as Musim Mas made the announcement last week. This is significant because Musim Mas it is responsible for 18 percent of the world's palm oil.

In a press release Musim Mas announced its new sustainability policy, which, it said, “re-affirms its commitment to bring benefits to the community, respect the rights of smallholders to develop or conserve their land, while maintaining a strict guideline of No Deforestation, No Peatland Development and No Exploitation.”

Efforts in Support of Sustainable Palm Oil

Responsible sourcing of palm oil is a growing concern with consumers and by extension a growing number of corporations. Palm oil plantations are infamous for destroying both forests and peatlands. At the start of 2014 a survey of the state of responsible sourcing of palm oil showed just how bad things are. The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) analysis revealed that twenty-four of the 30 leading companies they surveyed do not source palm oil responsibly.

In a report titled Donuts, Deodorant and Deforestation: Scoring America’s Top Brands on their Palm Oil Commitments, USC looked at the 10 biggest companies in the packaged food, fast food and personal care industries and found that the vast majority have inadequate commitments or lack commitments altogether.

Campaign Succeeds in Pressuring P&G into Sourcing Sustainable Palm Oil

Procter and Gamble (P&G) has responded to public pressure and agreed to stop thier environmentally destructive palm oil sourcing practices. This is yet another story about how the dangers of irresponsible and unsustainable practices make a company vulnerable to public shaming campaigns that can prove very harmful to a firm's reputation. A total of 400,000 people emailed P&G to express their outrage at the company's harmful activities.

On April 8th, the Washington Post reported that P&G has agreed to purchase 100 percent of their palm oil products from sustainable sources by 2015 and 100 percent of their paper products from recycled or third-party certified sources by 2020. A P&G spokesman explained that the company is now committed to a new "No Deforestation policy" and it intends to provide full traceability for all the palm oil and derivatives it uses by the end of next year.

Video - The Slaughter of Orangutans for Palm Oil

This video chronicles the heartrending story of Orangutans who are being wiped out so that Procter & Gamble (P&G) can expand palm plantations in Indonesia. We cannot claim to be civilized let alone sustainable when we decimate the habitats of other species. It is unconscionable that we destroy the homes of orangutans, elephants and tigers among other species, just to grow palm trees used in shampoos and other household products. Even worse is the fact that orangutans are being murdered by workers in palm oil plantations.

Palm Oil's Environmental Impacts: Solutions to Deforestation and Methane Emissions

The palm oil industry is a major cause of deforestation, and new research indicates that palm oil processing is also a significant source of methane emissions. Despite these very serious issues there are solutions to both problems. Palm oil is a widely used edible vegetable oil derived from the mesocarp of the fruit of the oil palms.

The palm oil industry has earned a bad reputation for its destruction of forests and peatlands. Both of which contribute to climate change as the loss of forests and peatlands adversely impact biodiversity, generates carbon emissions and reduces global carbon sinks. Over the last few years years sustainability certification in the palm oil industry has been addressing some of these deforestation concerns.

Heavy Snows the latest in Japan's Spate of Anamalous Precipitation

In the winter of 2013, northern Japan experienced extreme cold and huge snowfalls, later that summer the country was hit by unprecedented rains, and now much of the nation has been slammed by historic snowfalls. On the 8th and 9th of February significant accumulations of snow disrupted air and rail service all across Japan.

One of Asia’s busiest airports, the Haneda Airport was forced suspend all air traffic and railway services of Shinkansen bullet trains were suspended due to the heavy snowfall. Much of Tokyo and surrounding areas received up to 16 inches of snow. The storm has caused the deaths of at least three people and hundreds of others have suffered snow-related injuries.

Worldwatch is Helping the Philippines to Go 100 Percent Renewable

The Worldwatch Institute is helping the Philippines to develop a Sustainable Energy Roadmap with the goal of sourcing all of the nation's electricity systems entirely from renewable energy within a decade. Climate Change Commissioner and former Senator Heherson Alvarez invited The Worldwatch Institute’s Climate and Energy Director, Alexander Ochs to present an integrated methodology to achieve this ambitious goal.

Worldwatch's Sustainable Energy Roadmap is not just about energy efficiency and renewable sources of power, it is an integrated approach to examining the technical, socioeconomic, financial and policy changes necessary for transitioning to a an intelligent grid energy system.

In India Childhood Malnutrition is Compounded by Deadly Corruption

The combination of malnutrition and corruption are proving to be deadly in India. A total of 22 children have died so far from eating a pesticide laced lunch at a Chapra primary school in the rural Indian state of Bihar. Doctors are fighting to save the lives of 25 others. On July 17, the day after the incident, heartbroken parents and their supporters protested the tragic loss of innocent lives outside the school and at a local police station.

The cook complained to the headmistress about the smell and the taste of the food, but she insisted that it be served nonetheless. In response the authorities had suspended a food inspector and are pursuing a criminal case against the school headmistress who fled the scene and is currently being sought. The state has ordered an inquiry and announced that parents of the dead children will receive financial compensation.

Smog Pollution Mutes Chinese New Year Celebrations

The Chinese Lunar New Year is usually celebrated with a barrage of fireworks, but this year due to serious smog pollution problems, Beijing has been forced to scale back celebrations. In the Chinese capital there were 23 days of record breaking smog in January, which is twice the recent average.

Last year's pyrotechnical display sent 2.5 microgram pollution levels as high as 1,500 parts per milion in Beijing. This year the reduction of fireworks appears to have had a significant impact as Sunday's readings showed levels around 200 which is well below the readings of more than 700 that were seen last month.

Event - Solar Japan Conference

This event will take place on February 5-6 in Tokyo, Japan. A must attend event for those looking for access into a large market share of Japan’s sky rocketing solar industry. Japan is in the process of unleashing its solar potential. The introduction of the Feed-in-Tariff in July 2012 has established a lucrative opportunity for the development of new projects, and has facilitated a surge in growth in the utility-scale PV market.

Corporate Sustainability Strategies in Asia Part1 (Video)

Corporate Sustainability Strategies in Asia Part2 (Video)

 

South Korea Passes Cap-and-Trade Legislation

South Korea has passed legislation that will see the introduction of a greenhouse gas emissions trading program in which companies will buy or sell rights to emit carbon dioxide. Although the legislation had bipartisan support working out the details may be difficult.

Low Carbon Green Growth Roadmap for Asia and the Pacific

The Low Carbon Green Growth Roadmap for Asia and the Pacific is offered to member States to help policymakers. The report from the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) balances ecology and economic growth.

How the West can Capitalize on the Growth of Chinese Cleantech in 2012

For the past decade Western countries have led the way in cleantech, but the reduction of government support for the sector is advancing China's position as an international cleantech leader. Due to the eurozone crisis, China can expect to see very little demand from European countries. However, demand from domestic Chinese companies may be enough to drive the growth of China's cleantech industry in 2012.

Greener Japanese Companies

There is a long list of Japanese companies that are investing in sustainable innovation. Many of the world's best known Japanese brands are seeing the wisdom of green.

Sharp has built a solar-cell factory that raised its output to 1.3GW last year, from 790MW the year before. According to Ernst & Young, we could see a fourfold growth in Japan’s solar panel market by 2020.

Sanyo has re-emerged as the world’s largest maker of rechargeable batteries as well as a producer of solar panels. On April 1, 2011, Sanyo Electric became a wholly owned susbsidury of Panasonic.

Panasonic is expanding its energy businesses, from electric-vehicle batteries to hydrogen fuel-cell generators, and hopes to more than triple revenues from the segment to Y3,000bn ($36.4bn) by 2018. Like many other companies in Japan, Panasonic is also making its manufacturing operations greener, doubling the ratio of recycled materials used in its products and raising the recycling rate for its own industrial waste to virtually 100 per cent.

Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors have begun selling battery-driven electric vehicles, building on a green-car market pioneered by Toyota's top-selling Prius hybrid.

© 2011, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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Improving Battery Technology Key to Greener Cars

According to the US energy chief, Steven Chu, we need to see improvements in the car battery to facilitate the widespread adoption of electric cars. The US and Asia are racing to meet this growing need. A battery race has developed between US companies like Massachusetts-based A123 and China's BYD.

Cars that run on batteries will begin to be competitive with ones that burn petroleum fuels in about five years, the US energy secretary said at COP16, the UN climate talks in Cancun Mexico.

"It's not like it's 10 years off," Chu said at a press conference, "It's about five years and it could be sooner. Meanwhile the batteries we do have today are soon going to get better by a factor of two."

The Department of Energy (DOE), is supporting several approaches seeking to improve car batteries. The DOE's Advanced Research Projects Agency, is making investments in batteries and other technologies considered too risky for the private sector but that have big potential.

In order to make electric cars comparable to gas powered cars, Chu wants to see car batteries that last 15 years, with a five to seven times improvement in energy storage capacity and cost reductions of about a factor of three.


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