GreenBites

The world’s largest exporter of thermal coal, Indonesia plans to tighten restrictions on coal miners and build an industrial park that generates energy from renewables. In this episode, we also cover the hope for Vietnam’s IUU fishing issue, a suspended clean energy plant in China and a controversial China-funded climate project in Thailand. 

China unveils the details of its green transition towards carbon neutrality starting with reforms and incentives given to major polluting industries.  A fragile climate victory prevails in Indonesia’s court despite the country’s ambiguous and often contradictory position on domestic deforestation.  The cane toad, a species globally introduced into farmland for pest control, is starting to become a problem in Taiwan.

This week we close our coverage of COP26 with some main takeaways, and discuss two new green innovative projects in Asia: a net-zero emissions airport in India and lab-grown seafood in Singapore.

Talks at COP26 have finally begun starting from the first week of November, here’s a catchup on what has been discussed on the table so far. 

Things are looking dire as COP26 is starting.  This week we look at the UN emissions gap report released ahead of what many describe as the world’s last best hope to curb emissions.  Singapore is exploring geothermal energy, a promising renewable that’s been around for a while and comes at a high cost.  Lastly, we cover a development for electric vehicles: how there is some hope on how standardizing certain practices could lead to a healthier secondhand market.

This week, we explore methane emissions in Turkmenistan, what they are and what is being done about them; a concerning document leak ahead of COP26; and more extreme weather forecasts for Northern China.

This week, we touch upon a few important points to expect from COP26 happening at the end of the month, the struggle for China to balance out its new climate commitments with its ongoing urban development goals, and COP15, the UN Biodiversity Conference.

Nobel Prize in Physics goes to a Japanese scientist who has dedicated his academic life to studying global warming and climate change. A restaurant has decided to embrace the ongoing heavy floods in Thailand by offering meals in the floods. Indonesia is keen to increase the use of palm oil in jet fuel, but what does that mean for the environment? In the Philippines, environmental groups are protesting against two gas facilities’ construction plans that will happen in a region that spans across dozens of marine protected areas. Find out more in this episode of GreenBites.

Greta Thunberg made a landmark speech in Milan, calling out world leaders for their lip service in mitigating climate change. Cambodia’s expansion of coal plants go opposite the world’s direction, seemingly proving Thunberg’s fears. In this episode, we also cover Indonesia’s illegal wood timber trade, and Southeast Asia’s climate education.

A year after pledging carbon neutrality by 2060, China made another climate commitment at the UN General Assembly to stop funding coal projects overseas.  Following a year of Covid-related slumber, climate protests are back on the global agenda of activists.  Also, we will be launching a new audio documentary series on marine noise pollution: Asia’s Noisy Oceans. This new season will be featured on our main Sustainable Asia podcast, and in this week’s GreenBites, we will be sharing a little sneak peak of the content.

Despite a good track towards deforestation goals, Indonesia has pulled out of a US$1 billion deal with Norway to protect its rainforests.  China opens a vitrification plant, turning nuclear waste into glass for safer storage.  Southeast Asian professionals are increasingly concerned about food security due to climate change and what their governments are doing in terms of policy and planning.

Millions of electric car batteries are expected to retire in the next decade. So how are they dealt with after they come to the end of their lifetime? In this week’s GreenBites, we will look into how startups find ways to recycle metal parts from any batteries. We will also share a gruesome claim of stranded dugongs in Indonesia, a vulnerable marine species to extinction on the IUCN list, reportedly being cut up for traditional medicine, as well as how climate change threatens to squeeze out Indonesia’s medicinal plants.

A recent conflict in Afghanistan has drawn a highlight on the energy war, showing people how natural resources can link up with the war. In this episode of GreenBites, we will briefly look at the underground rare materials and the recent social conditions in Afghanistan, the predicted climate changes after Taliban taking the control of Afghanistan, a new way to treat the sewage which is running under the natural process, and also cover the deforestation in Indonesia these days.

A recently published United Nations report reveals an alarming fact: humanity cannot escape from a hotter future, which is likely to exacerbate an already climate vulnerable Asia.  In this episode of GreenBites, we will take an in-depth look at the UN report, look at predicted changes in crop production in Asia, and cover green initiatives such as Pakistan’s tree-planting drive against smog and Indonesia’s new floating solar farm. 

One of the dirtiest industries in the world, aviation is slowly turning to greener alternatives, with Japan becoming more open to food-based jet biofuel. In this episode, we explain how this works, and also cover China’s green path to carbon neutrality taking shape, Japan’s EV newbies and the reappearance of a special species in Indonesia.

From medals made from recycled metals to podiums, athlete beds and even torches, the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games have been hyped as the greenest games so far. Yet it is not without criticism as NGOs and experts have found evidence suggesting that all of this attention may just simply be greenwashing. In this week’s GreenBites, we will look at some of these concerns , discuss a climate forum held in Bangladesh, and talk about the reintroduction of the trawling ban in Indonesia. 

This week, we cover China’s new carbon trading platform, the deadly flooding in Henan province, Japan’s revised green energy plan, Southeast Asian delivery giants’ eco-pledges and special quiz at the end “name that species”.

While China warns its citizens to embrace yet another summer of dangerous floods and droughts, it denies the links of these worsening weather events and climate change. Why is that? This episode covers exactly that, as well as Southeast Asia’s accelerating deforestation and millennials’ new love for sustainable fashion. 

China is the world’s leading manufacturer and raw materials producer for solar panels, and business has been good in recent years, but will this last?  Freight costs have risen during the pandemic and international pressure to address forced labour allegations in Xinjiang are causing a global supply chain nightmare for solar energy developers.  Despite this, countries like India and Japan remain faithful in their solar agenda.

We also cover China’s national emissions trading scheme, a key to regulating greenhouse gas emissions, which is facing a delay in the launch of its trading platform.  And finally, some good news for pandas!

Central Asia’s snowmelt runoff is decreasing, affecting more than ten countries in the region. What does this mean for the people living there? In this week’s GreenBites, we also report on Bangladesh’s plan to scrap planned coal-fired power plants, Asia’s richest man renewable energy ambitions and a surprising innovative “employment” of insects in the Philippines.

This week’s episode looks at an environmental activist court case in Cambodia, China's battles to contain illicit buildings in conservation areas, and a mysterious skin disease amongst sharks in Malaysia. 

A recent news report revealed a possible leak in China’s Taishan Nuclear Power plant. Are we at risk of a nuclear disaster? In this week’s Greenbites, we will also give an update on China’s carbon neutrality plan, introduce tin mining in Indonesia and look at Hong Kong’s largest smuggling case involving endangered species and rare plants.

As Asia heads into its monsoon season, we look at how these tropical rainstorms have changed over the last million years against varying carbon emissions data. Meanwhile, farmers in the Chinese Gobi desert, despite reforesting nearly a quarter of China’s total area since the late 70s, now have to deal with increasingly challenging weather conditions.  Finally, the internet-famous herd of elephants trekking in China’s Yunnan province continues its journey, reminding us of the consequences of human expansion into wild habitats.