Asean inks pact with China’s Guangdong province

INDONESIA ¬ Energy and the environment are among seven sectors covered by a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed in Jakarta today by the Association of Southeast Nations (Asean) and the province of Guangdong, China.
The parties agreed to cooperate on agriculture, information and communications technology, trade and investment, tourism promotion, energy and environment, education, and [...]

Thailand first to sell E85 in Asia, claim

BANGKOK ¬ Thailand’s PTT Plc has become the first oil company in Asia to sell E85, but the 85 percent ethanol blended fuel will hardly be a money-maker for the first few months, says a report in Bangkok Post.
In fact, the only customers for E85 will be car companies testing their imported flex-fuel vehicles (FFVs) [...]

Japan to adopt carbon-labelling system

TOKYO ¬ Japan’s Forestry Agency has decided to devise guidelines for a proposed greenhouse-gas labelling system that will show the amount of carbon dioxide reduction if wood-based fuels are used instead of fossil fuels.
The move is part of a broader government initiative to help consumers see the amount of CO2 dioxide emitted during the [...]

Taiwan to proceed with nuclear waste dump despite protests

TAIPEI ¬ Taiwan’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has given conditional approval to a plan by the state-owned Taiwan Power Co. (Taipower) to build a temporary dump site in Taipei County despite strong protest from residents.
A government environmental impact assessment panel gave the go-ahead on condition that Taipower promises not to make the repository a final [...]

Europeans slash biofuel requirement

IN A further setback for the biofuel industry, members of the Environmental Committee of the European Parliament have voted to abandon their previous target of 10 percent biofuel by 2020.

At a recent meeting they decided that 4 percent biofuel would be quite enough. They also voted for stronger sustainability criteria aimed at making it more [...]

Nissan promoting new SUV

NISSAN Motor Co. said yesterday it will launch a diesel-powered X-Trail sport utility vehicle, the 20GT, in Japan later this month in an effort to increase its lineup of fuel-efficient cars.
Congratulations to Nissan on its continuing efforts to make gas-guzzling SUVs attractive to motorists!

Technorati Tags: Nissan,SUV,gas-guzzling

Garbage-fired power station starts in Bali

BALI ~ A power station fuelled by garbage has started operating in Bali, Indonesia, and is supplying electricity to the local state-owned electricity company.
The Sarbagita station is located at a garbage dump about 10 kilometres from the capital, Denpasar and  is expected to produce 2 megawatts (MW) of electricity this year, increasing to 9.6 MW [...]