Eco-Business

METI minister Tan See Leng also unveiled plans to triple battery storage, a S$75 million fund for cleaner power generation, approval for a 1.3GW renewable import project to Sembcorp and a deal to store Saudi crude oil in Singapore's underground caverns.

Though smaller than those of China, India and Indonesia, the COP31 hosts’ coal expansion plans raise questions about their credibility ahead of the November summit, according to a new report by nonprofit Urgewald. Previous hosts have faced similar scrutiny over their fossil fuel policies.

Countries’ climate plans deliver at most a third of the emissions cuts needed by 2035, and every five years of emissions at current levels raises peak warming by around 0.1°C, the UN Environment Programme’s Emissions Gap Report finds.

A forest around a cave in El Nido, Palawan

But the framework’s contribution to Philippine climate ambition remains uncertain, as the country’s updated pledge lacks a 1.5°C-aligned decarbonisation pathway and clarity on how much of its conditional target will be met through carbon markets, says civil society.

By Elizabeth Claire Alberts

By Hannah Alcoseba Fernandez

By Hu Min, Li Xindi, Yang Li

By Amanda Magnani

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A sobering new report from the United Nations Environment Programme warns that even if governments deliver on all their existing climate pledges, warming could reach 1.8°C later this century. That means humanity must pivot from simply containing global warming to finding ways to reverse it. By Nicholas Stern

Partnerships with China, not protectionism, will determine affordable, interoperable and equitable global decarbonisation and energy security. By Peter Newman and Ray Wills

Since the first Industrial Revolution, goods and technologies have reached the farthest corners of the world, but the ability to design, build, market, and extract value from them has remained highly concentrated. Unless humanity can break this pattern, a sufficient response to climate change will remain out of reach. By Pedro Ivo Ferraz da Silva

The war in the Gulf has unleashed powerful market forces that the rest of the world can harness to accelerate electrification and keep the Paris climate agreement's primary objectives on track. Doing so will not only mitigate climate change, but also strengthen economic resilience worldwide. By Murat Kurum

By Mandy Rambharos

By Aryanto Nugroho and Angela Asuncion

By Jason Judd and Kalpona Akter

By Alex Lo

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Wily Salim, founder and director, PT Karmic Virya Abadi

The convergence of the compliance and voluntary markets, demand for high-quality carbon credits and efforts to raise the bar on project credibility mean the conditions are right for a market rebound, observers said at the GenZero Climate Summit in Singapore.

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EB podcast - Resilience episode one image

In the inaugural episode of Eco-Business's new Resilience podcast series, industry leaders say the palm oil sector's ability to weather disruption will depend not on certification alone, but on rethinking the relationships that underpin the entire supply chain.

A small-scale miner in Bicol, Philippines

Critical minerals will be central to this year’s Asean meetings, said environment assistant secretary Noralene Uy, as the Philippines ushers the region towards domestic processing as summit chair.

Exclusive The economist and president of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network told the Eco-Business Podcast how China’s green industrial and financial capabilities can help accelerate Southeast Asia's transition to net zero.

EB Studio Capping methane release in the oil and gas sector is one of the fastest – and cheapest – ways to tackle climate change. But measurement mandates are first needed to abate the dangerous climate agitant in Southeast Asia, Viknesh Andiappan and Shareen Yawanarajah tell the EB Podcast.

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