Climate Change: Investment Risk & Opportunities

For all the warm and fuzzy talk of sustainability, there’s a yawning gap between what many big investors practise and what they preach. Not only is this a shame for the environment, it also threatens to short-change the ultimate owners of the assets. According to an Investor Group on Climate Change report published this week, some 98% of global asset owners see climate change as a material risk across their portfolios. But this apparent level of concern hasn’t matched attempts to grapple with climate-related investment risks and opportunities. Only 57% of the global players had managed to specifically refer to climate change in their investment policies.

Clancy Yeates in Sydney Morning Herald

June 18, 2011

Coalmining shares may seem lucrative today, but they could be dud investments tomorrow.

Institutional investors have been reluctant to deal with the risk that changes in climate pose to portfolios.

HOLDING coalmining shares may be lucrative today, but will there come a time when overseas climate policies turn them into dud investments?

This is just one – albeit simplistic – example of the tricky questions for investors thrown up by climate change. Unfortunately, it appears this type of debate is still being shunned by some of the world’s major investment houses.

Big wealth managers such as pension funds have been making supportive noises about action on climate change for years. After all, Australia’s resource-heavy sharemarket means the typical super fund is exposed to a rising carbon price, here and around the world.

Institutional investors also have a critical role in mobilising the $1.3 trillion in super funds under management for spending on cleaner technology.

But for all the warm and fuzzy talk of sustainability, there’s a yawning gap between what many big investors practise and what they preach. Not only is this a shame for the environment, it also threatens to short-change the ultimate owners of the assets. Thanks to super, that’s most of us.

According to an Investor Group on Climate Change report published this week, some 98 per cent of global asset owners see climate change as a material risk across their portfolios.

But this apparent level of concern hasn’t matched attempts to grapple with climate-related investment risks and opportunities. Only 57 per cent of the global players had managed to specifically refer to climate change in their investment policies. The $70 billion Future Fund also came under fire over its approach to climate risks in April after a freedom-of-information request revealed its board had not discussed climate change at any formal meetings since 2007. As the Climate Institute’s business director, Julian Poulter, said at the time: ”It seems extraordinary that potentially the greatest risk to that portfolio has had no consideration by the board of guardians.”

The revelation raises a key question: why do so many big investors seem to be overlooking the serious risks posed by climate change?

The investors like to blame squabbling politicians for failing to introduce a carbon price.

The logic is hard to dispute and the Investor Group’s report this week confirmed what economists know: price signals work.

The report found pension funds in Europe – the biggest economic region to have an emissions trading scheme – were leading the world in climate investments. But even in Europe, only 0.5 per cent of assets were invested in low-emissions projects such as renewable energy.

Australian funds directed just 0.3 per cent into climate-friendly assets. The US, where a carbon price has fallen off the political agenda, lagged behind with less than 0.1 per cent.

It seems clear a carbon price makes a difference, but big investors should also take some of the rap for their sluggish response to climate change risks.

Moves towards greater climate disclosure have been met with stubborn resistance at the big end of town.

The Asset Owners Disclosure Project has faced an uphill battle in attempting to extract climate risk data from the world’s 1000 biggest pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and insurers. When the Climate Institute tabled a resolution calling on Woodside Petroleum to reveal its carbon-price assumptions earlier this year, the move was defeated by an overwhelming majority of shareholders.

It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that many institutional investors are also guilty of dragging their feet on climate change – just like politicians.

Source: www.smh.com.au

Global Warming Talks To Go On  & Europeans Reach Forest Accord

New talks on global warming ended in Bonn with the UN’s climate chief calling on world leaders to help resolve issues ahead of a key meeting six months down the road. “There is a growing realisation that resolving the future of the Kyoto Protocol is an essential task this year and will require high-level political guidance,” said Christiana Figueres. Meanwhile, European countries have agreed to begin drawing up the first legally-binding accord to protect the continent’s forests, the Norwegian government has said.

Climate chief pleads for ‘high-level’ push on Kyoto

By Marlowe Hood (AFP) 18 June 2011

BONN — New talks on global warming ended here Friday with the UN’s climate chief calling on world leaders to help resolve the fate of the Kyoto Protocol ahead of a key meeting six months down the road.

“There is a growing realisation that resolving the future of the Kyoto Protocol is an essential task this year and will require high-level political guidance,” said Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the 194-nation UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

“By Durban, governments need to come forward with options that will be acceptable to all parties,” she told journalists, referring to the UNFCCC’s annual gathering, taking place in November 28-December 9 in Durban, South Africa.

Kyoto is the only international agreement with binding targets for curbing greenhouse gases.

But its future is uncertain because China and the United States, the world’s No. 1 and No. 2 polluters, are not subject to its constraints.

A first commitment period covering nearly 40 industrialised countries — except for Washington, which refuses to ratify Kyoto — expires at the end of 2012.

Japan, Canada and Russia have said they will not sign up for a new round of carbon-cutting vows.

The European Union (EU) says it will only do so if other nations — including emerging giants such as China and India, which do not have binding targets — beef up efforts in a parallel negotiating arena.

“It is not enough for the EU to simply sign up for another commitment period,” said Belgium’s Jurgen Lefevere, representing the European Commission.

“We only represent about 11 percent of global emissions. We need a solution for the remaining 89 percent as well.”

Developing countries, though, insisted the Protocol be renewed in its current form.

The Protocol remains critically important because it contains proven market-based mechanisms for CO2 reduction and tools to quantify and monitor such efforts, Figueres argued.

If Kyoto collapses, it could stymie progress elsewhere in the hugely complex, dual-track talks, negotiators here warned.

Figueres said the fate of Kyoto is closely linked to progress in the parallel UNFCCC negotiations, which include all nations under the Convention.

These talks made headway in Bonn on technical matters, but remain deeply riven on the core issue of how to share out the task of slashing carbon pollution.

“Governments are realising that this link needs to be dealt with to get to a global solution, and that will require high-level leadership during the year.”

There will be at least three opportunities for such dialogue between now and late November, she said, including a meeting of heads of state organised by Mexico on the margin of the UN General Assembly in September.

One option discussed being closed doors in Bonn is a “political” deal to extend Kyoto commitments “for one, two, three years,” said Jose Romero, a veteran climate negotiator for Switzerland.

“That gives us some air to look for a solution” under the other track of the climate talks, he said.

The United States recognizes actions taken by China to slow the growth of its carbon emissions, but said they should be more transparent.

“That’s the conversation that we are currently having with the developing government,” said US negotiator Jonathan Pershing, who said he had met separately in Bonn with both his Chinese and Indian counterparts.

“But we haven’t agreed on that. That is one of the outcomes that we think would be very significant in Durban.”

Even if a scaled-down second round of Kyoto commitments — including the EU and a few other small nations — may be acceptable to some developing countries.

“It is better to have that than having nothing at all,” said Grenada’s Dessima Williams, chair of the the 43-nation Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS).

At the same time, rich nations must “raise their level of ambition,” she told AFP.

Under current trajectories, “we are looking at a 4.0 degree Celsius (9.2 degree Fahrenheit) increase in global average temperatures,” she said.

The figure of 2.0 C (3.6 F) above pre-industrial levels is widely viewed as a safety threshold although many scientists say it is no guarantee of preventing extensive damage to the climate system, inflicting worsening floods, droughts, storms and rising seas.

Source: www.google.com/hostednews/afp/

For a full report on the European forestry accord go to – www.iisd.org

 – the website of the International Institute for Sustainable Development

AFP report (15June 2011):

European countries agreed on Thursday to begin drawing up the first legally-binding accord to protect the continent’s forests, the Norwegian government said.

The Nordic country, currently hosting the ministerial conference Forest Europe, described the development as a “historic breakthrough.”

“The reaching of an agreement to begin negotiations is significant progress in itself,” said Norway’s Agriculture Minister Lars Peder Brekk.

“In the field of international forestry policy, it’s a historic breakthrough,” he added.

Forest Europe was created in 1990 to encourage the protection and sustainable development of forests across its 46 member states.

Negotiations on the terms of the accord will begin December 2012 at the latest and will close on June 30 the following year.

According to the report published during the conference Europe, including Russian territory, accounts for about a quarter of the world’s woods.

The State of Europe’s Forests 2011 said the continent’s expanding forest areas removed 879 million tonnes of greenhouse gas from the atmosphere each year between 2005 and 2010 — around 10 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions in Europe in 2008.

Source: www.news.yahoo.com

Subsidies for China Clean Energy & Solar for New York Roofs

The Chinese government is considering plans to subsidize the use of energy-efficient materials and renewable energy technologies in new buildings and is encouraging provincial and municipal governments to impose stricter efficiency standards than the national minimums, according to Chinese officials. And two-thirds of New York City’s rooftops are suitable for solar panels and could jointly generate enough energy to meet half the city’s demand for electricity at peak periods, according to a new, highly detailed interactive map..

By KEITH BRADSHER in New York Times (15 June 2011):

SHANGHAI — The Chinese government is considering plans to subsidize the use of energy-efficient materials and renewable energy technologies in new buildings and is encouraging provincial and municipal governments to impose stricter efficiency standards than the national minimums, Chinese officials said Wednesday.

China’s heightened interest in saving energy — a response to electricity shortages and blackouts this year as well as longer-term security worries about dependence on energy imports — comes as the country’s construction industry continues to barrel ahead at a breathtaking pace. Last year, China consumed eight times as much cement as the world’s second-largest consumer, India, and it now leads the world in consumption of steel and other industrial materials by wide margins.

With 13 million to 21 million rural people in China migrating to cities each year — a number comparable to the 18.9 million people in metropolitan New York — the real estate industry has been putting up office towers and apartment buildings at a brisk pace but often with little regard for energy efficiency.

Chinese estimates show that the country’s commercial office buildings use 10 to 20 percent less electricity per square meter than comparable Western buildings. But the savings tend to come not from better designs but from thermostats set as high as 26 degrees Celsius (79 Fahrenheit) in summer and as low as 18 degrees (64 Fahrenheit) in winter.

Senior executives in the glass manufacturing and other material industries said that Chinese construction companies had long chosen low-cost, less insulated materials because buildings in China tended to change hands so frequently that owners seldom looked at long-term paybacks from electricity savings.

The construction boom is a central reason China passed the United States last year as the world’s largest consumer of electricity. China has also passed the United States as the world’s largest emitter of global warming gases, although it lags far behind in emissions and electricity consumption per person, because it has more than four times as many people as the United States.

Hao Bin, the building energy-efficiency director at the Chinese Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, said Wednesday that the ministry had already adopted an energy labeling system for new commercial and government buildings but wanted to create fiscal incentives for developers to use more efficient materials and adopt renewable energy. The most effective course seems to lie in subsidies for materials, as government studies have suggested that tax credits would be less effective, he said.

Some Chinese cities and provinces, from Beijing in the northeast to Yunnan in the southwest, already have limited subsidies for construction supplies, including insulation and rooftop solar water heaters. The heaters have water-filled steel tubes that zigzag in front of a reflective surface, which concentrates the sun’s rays on the tubes.

The Chinese central government has begun taking preliminary steps to subsidize the installation of rooftop photovoltaic solar panels, but the Finance Ministry has moved slowly because of concerns about the potential cost. China already manufactures more than half the world’s solar panels, but exports almost all of them.

Mr. Hao declined to provide a date for the introduction of a national incentive policy for energy-efficient construction materials and did not specify what materials would qualify. But he said that it was a focus of policy planners.

The question that policy makers are asking themselves, he said, is, “How can we have a carrot policy which is supplemented by our labeling system?”

Provincial governments have already begun subsidizing the construction of factories that produce energy-efficient products like triple-layer insulated glass.

Hongda Vacuum, a manufacturer of glass-coating equipment for solar panels and insulated windows, bought valuable land next to a large road six years ago on the outskirts of Changsha in Hunan Province for a third of the cost at the time for industrial land, said Huang Le, a marketing executive for the company. Surging land prices since then meant that the property soon became worth 10 times as much on the market as the price the company had paid for it, with a discount, in 2005, he said in an interview last year.

“We got the discount because we are a good project, something the government really wants to promote,” Mr. Huang said, adding that the company could borrow against the value of the land to finance expansion.

The central government has already renovated nearly 5,000 of its own buildings in northern China to install more insulation. It has subsidized similar renovations for buildings owned by provincial, municipal and village governments.

A complication for China is that the latest five-year plan, starting this year, calls for a sharp increase in the construction of low-income housing — traditionally an industry with low profit margins and a bias toward inexpensive materials — together with further curbs on the construction of high-end housing.

But Zhou Jiang, a policy researcher for the housing ministry, said Wednesday that energy-efficient materials added only 5 to 10 percent to the cost of a building.

“It is possible we build our low-income housing as green buildings,” Mr. Zhou said.

He and Mr. Hao were speaking at the opening of the Global Green Building China Focus 2011 conference in Shanghai.

One point that they did not address was how long it might take for energy-saving materials to pay for themselves in electricity savings. The Chinese government has been holding down electricity prices as an anti-inflation measure even as spot prices for coal, the country’s dominant fuel for power generation, have doubled in the last five years.

Chinese electricity companies have responded by limiting the operating hours of coal-fired plants in the last two years and slowing construction of new power plants, causing blackouts that have focused more public attention on the energy efficiency of buildings.

Residential electricity rates in China are half to two-thirds of rates in the United States. Industrial electricity rates in China are officially higher than those in the United States, but large or politically connected users frequently receive discounts.

By MIREYA NAVARRO in New York Times (16 June 2011):

Two-thirds of New York City’s rooftops are suitable for solar panels and could jointly generate enough energy to meet half the city’s demand for electricity at peak periods, according to a new, highly detailed interactive map to be made public on Thursday.

People interested in solar power can now check the suitability of any city address for solar panels and what their impact would be. Details are also available for properties that have panels, above.

The map, which shows the solar potential of each of the city’s one-million-plus buildings, is a result of a series of flights over the city by an airplane equipped with a laser system known as Lidar, for light detection and ranging.

Swooping over the five boroughs last year, the plane collected precise information about the shape, angle and size of the city’s rooftops and the shading provided from trees and structures around them.

The map is at the Web site of the City University of New York. City officials said the information should advance efforts to increase the city’s reliance on solar power as part of its energy mix, reducing the metropolis’s greenhouse gas emissions.

“The quality of the Lidar information is so remarkable that it will much more rapidly unlock usable sites,” said Stephen Goldsmith, the deputy mayor for operations.

Over all, the images show that 66.4 percent of the city’s buildings have roof space suitable for solar panels, said the CUNY team, which developed the map in partnership with the city and the federal Department of Energy. The rooftops could generate up to 5,847 megawatts from hundreds of thousands of buildings, the team said, compared with the negligible 6.5 megawatts yielded now from about 400 installations.

At those output levels, the panels could meet 49.7 percent of the current estimated daytime peak demand and about 14 percent of the city’s total annual electricity use, the officials said. The figures consider typical weather conditions.

Yet harnessing solar power also involves overcoming barriers like the upfront costs of installation, the availability of installers and the ability of utilities to integrate solar power into their grid. Solar power is projected to grow into a $12-billion-a-year industry this year, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association, but the sector is still in its infancy.

Nationwide, the installed solar capacity is just 2,300 megawatts, less than half the rooftop potential of New York City.

“We’re just really beginning,” said Rhone Resch, president of the trade group.

The solar map will allow New Yorkers to type in the address of a building where they live or work and find out how much solar power the roof can yield and at what cost. The Web site indicates what government financial incentives are available to help cover the costs and calculates how long it would take a building’s owner to recoup the costs in energy savings.

For the more environmentally minded, the map also shows how much carbon dioxide emissions each property would avoid, in pounds and by the number of trees that, if planted, could absorb that amount of emissions.

The solar map alone cost $210,000 and was financed by the federal Department of Energy’s Solar America Cities program. The city provided $450,000 for the Lidar flights.

Lidar produces images of structures, trees, wetlands and other surface terrain by shooting laser pulses from an aircraft and measuring the time it takes the pulses to bounce back. Its data will also be used to update flood maps.

More than a dozen cities already use similar maps, although not necessarily prepared with the Lidar system, and some of the maps have contributed to broadening the use of solar power. In San Francisco, the number of solar installations on private roofs rose to more than 2,300 this year, from 551 in 2007, when the solar map was introduced along with financial incentives like tax credits and rebates.

“It’s sort of a one-stop shop for people to understand what the technology is, does it make financial sense, are others doing this,” said Danielle Murray, the renewable energy program manager for San Francisco’s Environment Department. “You realize that you’re not alone, and that it’s a smart investment.”

In New York, David Bragdon, director of the Mayor’s Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability, said the city could realistically add “thousands of megawatts” in solar power.

To that end, Mr. Bragdon said, it has been working on streamlining the installation permit process and relaxing building regulations to accommodate the panels, in addition to pursuing larger-scale solar projects at landfills and other sites.

Officials with Con Edison, the utility that supplies electric service to most of the city, said they were developing a centralized Web site to reduce the cost and time of going through all the paperwork required to install the panels, which currently can take up to a year.

The city had already identified some “solar empowerment zones” where solar energy would be most beneficial, based on growing demand for power and other factors. The solar map now will offer roof-by-roof information within those  zones, allowing planners to locate and aid owners in areas with the highest demand on hot and sunny days.

“This map can serve as a key foundation toward building a new infrastructure, a clean energy infrastructure, for New York City,” said Tria Case, the director of sustainability for CUNY.

Source: www.nytimes.com

Energy Efficiency in The Wind & Innovative Systems

Energy efficiency need not always be achieved by new forms of technology. Innovative systems thinking will sometimes do the trick, says the Energy Studies Institute. When it comes to energy efficiency, engineers tend to focus on how much they can get from a resource – conversion – and more efficient use of the energy by the consumer at the other end. And the lack of strong wind in Singapore hasn’t stopped Vestas from expanding at the new, energy-efficient Mapletree Business City in Pasir Panjang.

By Catrina Yeo in The Straits Times (13 June 2011):

The writer is an energy analyst at the Energy Studies Institute, National University of Singapore.

Greater energy efficiency has been recognised as the most important weapon in the struggle to secure energy sources and battle climate change, but the debate over its potential still rages on.

The usual practice is to take an economic or engineering view of energy efficiency.

A typical engineer would calculate a higher energy efficiency potential than an economist, who would factor in cost. But this does not mean the engineer’s point of view is more accurate or less pragmatic than the economist’s. What is needed is a perspective of energy efficiency that considers the system as a whole.

Mainstream economists argue against a high energy efficiency potential on the basis of price-driven market forces which assume the market will automatically capture the benefits of cost-efficient actions.

Price does drive market forces, but not always. An energy market is an example of a large and complex system in which social and technical factors weaken the influence of price on decisions.

For example, in the early 1990s, Chicago was unable to reduce electricity consumption as much as Seattle even though its electricity tariff was twice as high. Seattle’s success was due to a conservation programme which increased awareness of energy efficiency.

On the other hand, engineers sometimes fall into the trap of their own expertise. They often lack a systemic view due to over-familiarity or over-specialisation. They tend to approach energy efficiency by zooming in on a component or activity, such as retro-fitting, which may not lead to overall improvement.

A system is more than the sum of its parts and component changes do not necessarily improve the whole.

To take a real example from industrial practice, power consumption can be cut without installing a more efficient or sophisticated pump in a heat-transfer pumping loop. It can be done simply by rearranging the pipelines and pumps.

Energy efficiency need not always be achieved by new forms of technology. Innovative systems thinking will sometimes do the trick.

When it comes to energy efficiency, engineers tend to focus on how much they can get from a resource – conversion – and more efficient use of the energy by the consumer at the other end. But these are concerns that target a specific component.

A broader approach would, for instance, try to remove the need for that energy in the first place.

Increasingly, in the area of transport energy efficiency, analysts are working to take vehicles, which will inevitably consume energy, out of the equation. This can be done via efficient urban planning that will enable people to get where they need to go without a vehicle. Why design something that is not needed in the first place, only to try to improve its efficiency later?

A systemic approach also applies to the timeframe of a project. Contrary to the popular faith in the law of diminishing returns, Dow Chemicals in Louisiana saved more energy in the later years of its efficiency efforts.

The potential of energy efficiency will always exist and it changes with its system’s dynamics. Energy-efficient targets should be seen not as numbers to be achieved but as a practice of continuous improvement that requires a view of the whole.

The Straits Times (16 June 2011): 

The possibility of rows of wind turbines on Singapore’s coast, rotating with the breeze while powering the city-state, need not be just a fancy idea blowing in the wind.

Singapore’s wind speeds are too weak to be converted to commercial wind energy but this could change as turbines get more efficient and are able to pick up wind energy at lower speeds, said Danish wind energy giant Vestas Wind System’s president of Asia Pacific, Mr Sean Sutton.

The lack of wind, however, has not stopped Vestas from expanding here. The firm, which set up in Singapore in 2006 with 20 employees, yesterday launched a hub at the new, energy-efficient Mapletree Business City in Pasir Panjang.

It was also Global Wind Day yesterday.

Vestas will house all its units – like research and development, and regional headquarters for sales and operations – on one floor at the business park.

Mr Sutton noted that Vestas here has grown into a busy firm employing more than 200 staff.

It is flying high on the booming wind-energy sector in Asia. Last year alone, it installed more than 1,000 megawatts (MWs) of wind energy capacity in Taiwan, India, the Philippines, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

Asia makes up 22 per cent of revenue – a figure that is set to increase further, he said.

‘In many countries in Asia, wind energy is becoming as cheap as power generated from fossil fuels. In the past, we used to install small 10MW wind farms. Now, it’s in the region of 400MW or more,’ he added.

Singapore’s location serves the firm well because of its proximity to Asian markets and strong financial services and talent pool with qualified engineers.

Vestas recently signed an agreement with Nanyang Technological University to establish a Joint Materials Lab within the School of Materials Science and Engineering.

Vestas Asia Pacific managing director for technology R&D Peter Cheng said yesterday that both parties will collaborate on research into how composite materials used in aircraft can be best deployed in wind technology.

The R&D team at Vestas is also looking into the idea of wind power as a support system for power plants, and how weather forecasting can help wind-power operations, he added.

Source: www.greenbusinesstimes.com

Sustainability Has Become a Defining Megatrend in this Century

Three new research centres are being set up to look into energy and power usage in Asia. These are  in addition to The Earth Observatory, which is already conducting fundamental research on earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunami and climate change in and around Southeast Asia, to lead toward safer and more sustainable societies. It believes there is urgency in further accelerating the integration of sustainability knowledge into the decisions taken at senior levels today in business and with policy makers.

Feng Zengkun in Straits Times (15 Jun 2011):

THREE new research centres will be set up here to look into energy and power usage, said the National Research Foundation (NRF).

The centres will study solar energy, ways to convert carbon dioxide into electricity and fuel, and how to create consumer and household products that use less power. They will be housed at a complex at the NUS University Town, which will be completed by the end of the year.

Funding will come from the NRF’s Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise (Create) programme, which pairs up local and foreign institutions.

NRF chairman Tony Tan, 71, said on Monday that the projects are important for Singapore as it lacks natural resources and has a highly industrialised economy. ‘Each of these initiatives will tackle the energy problem from a different perspective,’ he said.

The first centre is a ‘low-energy electronic systems’ project by scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), under the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (Smart) centre. The scientists intend to find new ways to make household items such as lights and television screens use less electricity.

Traditionally, this was done by making the semiconductors in them smaller and more dense to minimise loss of energy. But the scientists said new techniques may yield more energy savings.

The project brings together experts from MIT, the National University of Singapore (NUS) and Nanyang Technological University (NTU). They will be from different fields, such as materials, devices and circuits.

Lead principal investigator Professor Eugene Fitzgerald of MIT said the diversity is more likely to lead to a breakthrough. ‘This collaboration could define innovative paths for the industry,’ he said.

The second research centre will look at ways to make solar power cheaper and to convert sunlight into liquid fuels. It is a collaboration between NTU, NUS and the University of California, Berkeley.

The researchers noted that solar energy is good for the environment but is not widely used because it is too expensive. The Energy Market Authority here has estimated that the cost of solar power is double the cost of electricity from fossil fuels. Part of this is due to the inefficiency of current solar panels, which the scientists said can convert at most 25 per cent of sunlight received into usable energy.

‘We want to double the conversion to at least 50 per cent,’ said University of California, Berkeley’s Professor Ramamoorthy Ramesh, the project’s lead principal investigator. This would make solar panels more worthwhile and solar power cheaper to produce on average. The scientists are also looking at ways to use the same amount of sunlight to split more water into hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen can be used to make methanol, a liquid fuel that can replace fossil fuels.

In the third centre, China’s Peking University will work with Singapore universities for the first time to recycle the carbon dioxide in industrial waste gases into energy and fuel.

Lead co-principal investigator Zhang Dongxiao of Peking University said this would give the manufacturing and chemical industries a greener image. ‘This can also make products from both our countries more competitive,’ added Professor Zhang.

The new centres bring the Create programme to eight overseas collaborating universities and 12 research groups. Previous collaborations under the programme have resulted in projects like the Future Cities Lab, which looks at ways to develop sustainable buildings and keep a city’s water supply clean.

NRF has set aside a total of $1 billion for the Create programme.

Source: www.wildsingaporenews.blogspot.com

Earth Observatory Singapore

Here’s some insight into the Earth Observatory of Singapore (EOS), an Institute of the Nayang Technological University. Its director is Kerry Sieh.

Kerry SIEH initiated the field of paleoseismology thirty five years ago, with the discovery of how fast California’s infamous San Andreas fault slips and how often it generates great earthquakes. Subsequently, in the formative years of the Southern California Earthquake Centre, Sieh led its effort to characterise earthquake faults beneath Los Angeles.

Prior to his arrival in Singapore, Sieh was a chaired professor in Caltech’s Tectonic that he and others at Caltech created.  Over the past two decades he and his colleagues have used coral reefs and GPS measurements to understand the patterns of great earthquakes on the Sunda megathrust, offshore Sumatra.  These discoveries have led to useful forecasts of recent and impending large Sumatran earthquakes and tsunamis. He and his students recently completed a 6-year study that redefined the active tectonics of Taiwan, and are now engaged in a comprehensive study of the earthquake faults of Myanmar.

Earth Observatory

EOS was officially launched at the Nanyang Technological University in February 2009, to study and forecast natural phenomena threatening Southeast Asia.

Natural hazards such as earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, and global climate change pose major threats to our very young, 10,000-year-old, increasingly fragile civilization.

The first few years of the 21st century have provided ample evidence of our vulnerability and our exposure. The devastations of Acehnese and Thai coasts in 2004, of Kashmir and New Orleans in 2005, of southwest Java in 2006, of Sumatra again in 2007, western Sichuan and Myanmar in 2008 and, in the early days of 2010, of Haiti, comprise a nearly incessant litany of death, loss and suffering.

In some of these cases we knew well that we were living on dangerous ground; in other cases we did not. For example, New Orleans and Port au Prince had long been recognised as a catastrophe waiting to happen, but for a variety of reasons that knowledge had no effect. Similar incongruities exist here in Southeast Asia as well. There are places sitting in the jaws of a dragon that have no scientific awareness of the tenuousness of their existence. Such was the case of the hundreds of thousands who perished in Aceh and Kashmir.

These tragic examples, one of very basic ignorance and the other of the inability to translate knowledge into action, illustrate well the challenge of acquiring basic scientific knowledge of natural processes and then utilising it effectively and in a timely fashion. 

The Earth Observatory is well positioned to face this challenge. We intend to help blaze new paths through the fascinating mysteries of this dangerous, dynamic, thin shell of our planet that we call home. We look forward to sharing our research with civic leaders, engineers, planners, and many others working to make the world a safer and a more enjoyable place.

Mission:

To conduct fundamental research on earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunami and climate change in and around Southeast Asia, toward safer and more sustainable societies.

Sustainability has become a defining megatrend in this century. International negotiations on global climate change policy framework, stimulus packages targeted at accelerating economic transformation towards ‘green’ industry sectors, the inclusion of ‘eco-strategies’ as a thrust for multinational corporations – this all bears witness of the development.

We believe there is urgency in further accelerating the integration of sustainability knowledge into the decisions taken at senior levels today in business and with policy makers.

Through our research, executive education programs and other forms of engagements we want to contribute in building up and conveying this knowledge.

Source: www.earthobservatory.sg

Water, Water Everywhere: Singapore Hosts Global Events

Singapore hosts one of the largest gatherings of the global water community from 4 to 8 July. Policymakers, captains of the industry and water experts will convene for the fourth edition of the Singapore International Water Week.  One highlight is the new ‘Water & Cities” showcase, which has been introduced to reflect the focus on water solutions for cities and the urban environment, highlighting case studies and business opportunities on integrated water and urban planning, as well as innovations and technologies.

Special Preview of the Singapore international Water Week:

From the 4 to 8 July 2011, Singapore will host one of the largest gatherings of the global water community. Policymakers, captains of the industry and water experts will convene at the Suntec Singapore International Convention & Exhibition Centre for the fourth edition of the Singapore International Water Week. 

Themed “Sustainable Water Solutions for a Changing Urban Environment”, this global platform for water solutions will address the latest and most pertinent water issues amid a rapidly changing urban environment.    

Today, more than half of the Earth’s population lives in cities. This trend is set to accelerate in the coming years. According to the United Nations, the world’s population will reach around 9 billion by the year 2050, of which 70% is projected to live in cities.  This growing global population, rapid urbanisation and emerging economies will place even more strain on scarce resources, one of the most precious is water.

As urbanisation and industrialisation gain momentum, the exigency is for urban planning and water management to work in tandem to address the challenge of increasing demands for clean and safe water. This creates vast opportunities for businesses and water practitioners to identify and create sustainable water solutions to meet water demands.

The flagship events of the Singapore International Water Week will deliver value to delegates, trade visitors and exhibitors, reinforcing Singapore International Water Week as the global platform for water solutions that brings policy makers, industry leaders, experts and practitioners together to address challenges, showcase technologies, discover opportunities and celebrate achievements in the water world.

The flagship programmes are:

• Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize

• Water Leaders Summit

• Water Convention

• Water Expo

• Business Forums

In just three short years, Water Expo has grown to become Asia’s most important and comprehensive water trade show that focuses on innovations and products and services, as well as best practices, successful case studies and the practical application of water technologies that are suitable across all industries. Water Expo 2011 is set to be the biggest ever with more than 600 participating companies.  It is the marketplace to connect with key customers and potential business partners as well as showcase the latest and widest range of products, services and water technologies.

This year, we continue to receive strong support from participating countries and regions. Turnout at Water Expo is set to be boosted by six new group pavilions – the Australia Pavilion, the Belgium Pavilion, the UK Pavilion, the Milwaukee Water Council Pavilion, the Water Environment Federation Pavilion and the Maryland-Asia Environmental Partnership Pavilion. This is testament to the strategic value and pro-business environment of the Singapore International Water Week, and takes the total number of group pavilions to 15 as they join returning pavilions from Canada, China, Germany, Israel, Japan, South Korea, The Netherlands, Singapore and Taiwan.

A new element in this year’s Water Expo is Water Innovations@SIWW, which showcases the latest R&D projects spawned in Singapore, and TechXchange, a platform connecting researchers with investors to explore commercialisation opportunities for these R&D projects.

Another highlight is the new ‘Water & Cities” showcase, which has been introduced to reflect the focus on water solutions for cities and the urban environment. This showcase aims to highlight the case studies and business opportunities in Singapore and other cities on integrated water and urban planning, as well as the innovations and technologies offered by industry leaders.

With its comprehensive programme line-up, Singapore International Water Week 2011 is set to deliver value to delegates, trade visitors and exhibitors, as the global platform for water solutions.

Source: www.siww.com.sg

Leadership Coming from Youth for a Sustainable Future

Young people are stepping up and taking charge of organising nationwide events, with global impact. One such event is the World Leadership Conference 2011 from 13-15 July in Singapore, which is a platform for youth all over Asia Pacific to come together to learn, voice out and take action to move towards a green sustainable future for Planet Earth. Key speakers include Park Young-Woo, Regional Director, UNEP and TV/film star Denise Keller, advisor to the Climate Project in Asia.

The World Leadership Conference 2011 is a platform for youth all over Asia Pacific to come together to learn, voice out and take action to move towards a green sustainable future for Planet Earth.

One of the key speakers is Park Young-Woo, Regional Director, UNEP. He has served as the UNEP’s Regional Director of the Regional Office  for Asia and the Pacific since 2008. He has a PhD in Natural Resource and  Environmental Economics from Iowa State University and holds a Master’s degree in  Economics from Southern Illinois University. Prior to joining the UNEP, he was the  President of the Business Institute of Sustainable Development of the Korean  Chamber of Commerce and Industry, before being appointed as the Director-General  of International Cooperation in the Ministry of Environment of Korea. Mr Park has served in a number of environmental committees including the Presidential  Commission on Sustainable Development. He has also headed the Industrial  Environment Department at the Hyundai Institute of Eco-Management.

Another keynote speaker who will be on the platform at the World leadership Conference: Denise Keller, The Climate Project Council Advisor (Youth)

Denise Keller shot to fame after winning Ford Model of the World Singapore in 2000. Subsequently, she appeared on the covers of the international editions of Vogue, Elle, and Harper’s Bazaar, amongst other magazines. Ms Keller then served as one of MTV Asia’s VJs, a position which she held on to for almost a decade. She has hosted numerous award-winning television programmes including ‘Passage to Malaysia’, which earned many nominations and won the Best Lifestyle Program award at the 2010 Asia TV Awards. Ms Keller has been an ambassador for several brands including Longines, Olay, Shiseido, and Nokia. She is an advisory council member for The Climate Project, a non-profit social enterprise led by former US Vice-President Al Gore.

And our very own Ken Hickson, Chairman and CEO of Sustain Ability Showcase Asia; Director ABC Carbon, editor of abc carbon express and author of The ABC of Carbon.

For the full programme and details of the World leadership conference go to the website: www.worldleadershipconference.org

by Feng Zengkun The Strait Times (10 June 2011):   

Student leaders step up to organise top events

YOUNG people here are stepping up and taking charge of organising nationwide events.

Last month, the Biomedical Engineering Society’s (BES) 5th Scientific Meeting was organised entirely by Nanyang Technological University (NTU) students. Next month’s World Leadership Conference for the environment is also being put together by student volunteers from schools nationwide.

The events are likely to be organised by student volunteers in the future. The Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star) and Science Centre Singapore are also accepting applications for their weekly programme, called the Singapore Academy of Young Engineers and Scientists, which will eventually be directed by student leaders.

Students say taking charge of these events has many benefits. Miss Pansy Wang, 22, co-chair of the BES event’s student committee, said she met many industry professionals and made valuable contacts in the course of planning the conference. ‘You put your name out there, and it’s almost like a job interview even before you graduate,’ she said.

Miss Dianne Goh, 22, part of the World Leadership Conference team, said her fellow students’ and her tender years have led many professionals to offer their network of friends and free advice.

‘There’s a lot of goodwill because we’re putting time and effort into these events even though we don’t have many resources or contacts,’ she said.

Mr James Hosking, 37, managing director of green website Eco-Business, has met the team three times since they started planning the conference.

‘Their initial document for sponsors was seven pages long. I took away a lot of words, added charts and helped them cut it down to five pages,’ he said.

Students can also learn from the hard-won experience of those who have gone before them, said Mr Cai Li, 25, a student at the National University of Singapore and a member of the World Leadership Conference committee.

With plans to set up his own green business selling recycled plastic T-shirts, Mr Cai said he was struck by the words of the owner of an organic-clothing company, who is a guest speaker at the conference.

‘He said it’s not enough that the product is green. It also has to be value for money or people won’t buy it,’ Mr Cai said.

Students The Straits Time spoke to said organising the conference has given them a clearer sense of the working world and its meetings and conferences. Another bonus was learning how to manage large sums of money. For the BES conference, the students were given a budget of $12,000. The World Leadership Conference budget is $100,000.

To allay the concerns of sponsors and advisers, the students had to draw up a detailed budget of where the money would go.

‘We borrowed everything we could, right down to tables, chairs and poster boards,’ said Miss Leow Jiamin, 22, co-chair of the BES conference.

Paper fliers were adapted to digital copies that could be broadcast on campus televisions. A committee member also learnt programming languages to create and maintain the conference’s website.

‘The students were creative and made every dollar count,’ said Dr Sierin Lim, 34, an assistant professor of bioengineering at NTU and the students’ adviser.

Experts The Straits Times spoke to said having student organisers benefited the events.

Dr Lim said students are better at getting their peers to participate in the conferences.

Two months after the NTU team approached student groups and teachers in schools here, more than 200 people signed up for the conference, double the number in the previous conference.

Miss Leow said this is partly because students are more comfortable confiding their worries to peers. She said the committee was initially puzzled by the lack of submissions from junior colleges for the oral presentation section of the conference.

It was only after they went to the schools that they found the students had little experience in public speaking, which ‘made them shy about giving oral presentations’.

Miss Goh also noted that professionals were often more willing to help or participate because her team is not affiliated with any political or corporate body. ‘There’s less baggage and distrust when it comes to student organisations,’ she said.

Scientists who attended the BES conference last month said the students did a good job.

Professor Jackie Ying, a guest speaker from A*Star, said the conference was indistinguishable from one organised by professionals.

NTU’s Dr Lim said the organising committee of the BES conference is likely to be rotated among tertiary institutions here in the future, but students from other schools would be welcome to volunteer.

For the student committee of the World Leadership Conference, the event next month will be the culmination of their labours.

‘I’m sleeping at 2am every day and checking my phone every other minute,’ said Miss Goh. ‘But I don’t resent a single moment of it.’

Source www.biotechsingapore.com and www.worldleadershipconference.org

Big Business Shows How to Make the Switch to Renewable Energy

The world is ready for the big switch to renewable energy, according to German conglomerate Siemens. Europe’s largest engineering company is gearing up for an expected huge surge in demand by investing billions in research, chief executive and president Peter Loescher told The Straits Times. Siemens is setting aside a quarter of its €4 billion (S$7.1 billion) in total research and development funds solely for green technology research.

Clean Technology Investment World Asia is strategic platform that brings together private equity, venture & corporate venture capitalists, clean technology innovators, financiers & fund players investors to identify investment opportunities, raise capital, access licensing rights to new innovative technologies and form strategic partnerships in Asia. For more go to : www.terrapinn.com

By Aaron Low in The Straits Times (8 June 2011):

The world is ready for the big switch to renewable energy, according to German conglomerate Siemens.

The engineering company, which is Europe’s largest, is gearing up for an expected huge surge in demand by investing billions in research, said chief executive and president Peter Loescher.

He told The Straits Times that Siemens is setting aside a quarter of its €4 billion (S$7.1 billion) in total research and development funds solely for green technology research.

This covers everything from improving energy efficiency to research into renewable energy and water technology.

‘Our green portfolio was €28 billion last year. It has grown by double digits in the past couple of years; (it is) a major growth driver,’ he said in an interview.

‘It will grow from €28 billion to €40 billion by 2014,’ he said, referring to the total size of Siemens’ green business operations, including investments.

Bloomberg reported that Mr Loescher aims to increase Siemens’ revenue faster than that of its rivals. In March, he set a goal to top €100 billion in overall business volume. Its business volume was about €78.6 billion in the last fiscal year.

Analysts have also said that the company is under pressure to spend its huge cash hoard – which doubled in the past three years to €18.5 billion – on acquisitions to boost profits and revenue.

Green technology could well provide some of the momentum for Siemens, as many Asian countries now take an interest in renewables, Mr Loescher said.

Germany has already taken the lead, with its government pledging to double the amount that renewables contribute to its energy consumption to 35 per cent by 2020, partly to make up for the phasing out of nuclear energy.

With Germany as a role model, Mr Loescher believes many other governments will take the issue of investing in renewable energy seriously.

‘Green energy is at a point where it is competitive with the electricity grid levels. For example, with wind energy, rapidly evolving turbine technology makes it such that they don’t need subsidies to be competitive,’ he said.

All of this will become relevant for Asia, as the fast-developing region needs to figure out how to power, house and feed its rapidly growing population, he said.

Singapore will play a key role in Siemens’ Asia strategy, acting as a key hub for emerging markets, added Mr Loescher. One of the company’s research centres based in Singapore is its global water technology and research and development hub.

Siemens, he noted, is also responsible for supplying 20 per cent of energy demand here, and its infrastructure delivers about a third of the water supply.

‘We have a strong, long-term relationship with Singapore. And we see Singapore as a very important hub,’ he said.

Source: www.greenbusinesstimes.com

Flooding the Media with Climate Change Stories

Climate change is not just an environment story because it cuts across economic, policy and social issues. It has become the important context with which to view global developments.

It challenges certain fundamental and conventional notions, for example, on economic growth and its definitions. Already we are beginning to see interesting debates on whether there are alternative models that could redefine growth in the next century. Policies are also being made with climate change at their heart – from Germany’s energy policy to trade negotiations at multilateral meetings.

Then there’s the good news: There are unparalleled opportunities offered by this global challenge, whether it is finding the next renewable energy technology, or inventing a flood-proof system to implement in flood-prone areas – stories that have largely been under-reported compared with the negative stories on the consequences of climate change.

So writes Jessica Cheam, one of Asia’s most respected “environmental” journalists writing in the Straits Times. Read More

By Jessica Cheam in The Straits Times (12 June 2011):

It was a strange confluence of events. Last Sunday, I was in Budapest, Hungary, participating in a journalists’ seminar organised by the Asia-Europe Foundation (Asef) on climate change and the media’s role in furthering the debate.

It seemed fitting as it was also World Environment Day. And on that day, Mother Nature seemed intent on reminding Singapore of the unpredictable force that she is – Singapore experienced its worst floods this year, which ruined the retail shops in the basement of Tanglin Mall and caused Bukit Timah Road’s canals to overflow and flood the roads.

This came on the heels of recent tragic news that an Indonesian boy had drowned in a flash-flood incident, when he fell into a drain in the Moulmein area concealed by the high water levels.

Singaporeans were instantly abuzz about the floods. Not again, they complained. Last year, Singapore had also experienced heavy flooding in June and, in particular, parts of Orchard Road such as Liat Towers were flooded, among other areas, destroying millions of dollars’ worth of goods. A review of our flood-prevention systems then led to flood levees being installed in Orchard Road, and plans were made to enlarge and widen drains.

But it looks like it was not enough. Tough questions are now being asked: What has changed such that our drainage system, which worked for the best part of the last three decades, is no longer adequate?

A few reasons have emerged: rubbish choking our drains, overbuilding in certain areas that results in water hitting concrete with no place to go, and alert systems that failed.

But there’s one other important factor – one we cannot control – which is that Singapore’s climate patterns have changed, likely permanently, and our low-lying island is set to see heavier precipitation from now on.

Inevitably, climate change has been mentioned in the news coverage of the floods. Environment and Water Resources Minister Vivian Balakrishnan acknowledged the ‘very high probability that our weather patterns have changed’, and that Singapore’s planning norms and building codes must be reviewed in the light of this development.

Although weather events cannot be specifically pinned on climate change, there is an emerging consensus that the increase in the incidence of extreme weather events across the globe is due to unpredictable and changing climate patterns.

The public, who on a normal sunny day do not give two hoots about the environment, have suddenly sat up and taken notice.

Are Singaporeans finally feeling the impact?

Across the world, we are seeing trends of nations being awakened to this new reality. Climate stories were but page-fillers in Pakistan, for example, until the country experienced massive floods that claimed many lives, then they were given the same top coverage as terrorism, governance and the economy.

But the challenge is sustaining the momentum.

When the floods subside, and the sun shines again, will Singaporeans forget?

How do media practitioners bring home to the average person that the choices he makes today, the government policies he supports or rejects, will ultimately have an impact on his daily life in the near future?

At the 6th Asia-Europe Journalists’ Seminar, this was a question that 30 journalists across Asia and Europe grappled with.

Following the high-profile United Nations climate change summit in Copenhagen in 2009, media coverage of climate change dropped drastically, back to 2005 levels, according to DailyClimate.org.

Similar trends were found in studies by other institutions such as the University of Colorado and Oxford University. Earth Journalism Network executive director James Fahn, who spoke at the seminar, noted that this was also partly due to ‘climate fatigue’. People have grown tired of phrases such as ‘climate change’ and ‘environment’.

This is partly because stories on the climate and environment often involve bad news: floods, loss of lives, melting glaciers, rising food and energy prices, and so on.

So what can we do?

The seminar threw up a set of recommendations (full details can be found on Asef’s website www.asef.org), which remind media practitioners that, to borrow Mr Fahn’s words, climate change is not just an environment story.

It is not just an environment story because it cuts across economic, policy and social issues. It has become the important context with which to view global developments.

It challenges certain fundamental and conventional notions, for example, on economic growth and its definitions. Already we are beginning to see interesting debates on whether there are alternative models that could redefine growth in the next century. Policies are also being made with climate change at their heart – from Germany’s energy policy to trade negotiations at multilateral meetings.

Then there’s the good news: There are unparalleled opportunities offered by this global challenge, whether it is finding the next renewable energy technology, or inventing a flood-proof system to implement in flood-prone areas – stories that have largely been under-reported compared with the negative stories on the consequences of climate change.

The seminar also noted that while writers should be careful not to provide ‘false balance’ in stories, such as by including misleading or inaccurate statements from climate-change sceptics, they should also strive to be objective and reflect any new developments in climate science – even if they challenge the current consensus.

This helps climate change reporting, as a whole, gain credibility.

Most importantly, stories on climate change need to speak directly to readers, to help them understand their role in this global challenge.

The stories on the floods in Singapore are a good example of how climate change can affect the man in the street.

People may ask: Why should we care? And, how do my consumer choices matter?

Well, they matter a lot, since the complex problem of climate change will ultimately affect the price of the petrol you put in your car, how much your plate of noodles costs, and what type of jobs you can expect to see in the future.

It’s important to keep it on the agenda because, like the floods last Sunday, it could come out of nowhere and catch us unprepared.

Source: www.cjcpig.wordpress.com and www.wildsingaporenews.blogspot.com

Walking On Thin Ice

It’s a dangerous business speaking out on climate change. Outspoken scientists in Australia have been threatened and popular Oscar winning actress and director Cate Blanchett has been criticised – even vilified – for appearing in a TV commercial promoting climate action and a price on carbon. What a sad state of affairs, when the rest of the world is seemingly doing so much more. Germany’s is moving away from nuclear and doubling its renewable energy commitment, plus investing heavily in clean tech research and development. India and Indonesia marked Earth Day in slightly different ways, but forests – and deforestation – are coming into focus globally this year. It took a British artist Mark Coreth to show a Sydney audience an icy bear sculpture to create awareness and a British scientist Michael Grubb to ask if Australia has lost its way on climate change action. Ross Garnaut’s latest report is sensible and sensitive to public and political action and renewable energy investmets should rise with a carbon price. Singapore is attracting a lot of water attention – investments and events – plus starting an electric vehicle trial. There are “straws in the wind” in Thailand and a DNA code of life to deal with fish fraud and overfishing. ST Microelectronics and Corporate Express are reporting sustainability action, while IATA and airlines are up in arms over Europe’s emission controls. Virgin Australia has a scheme of its own. We give the last word to author Jo Chandler, who tells of the concerns over melting Antarctic and Arctic ice sheets. Not so cool! – Ken Hickson