S$2 million grant to encourage zero-waste living

Junn Loh Channel NewsAsia 22 Jan 19;

SINGAPORE: A new S$2 million grant has been launched to help people and organisations raise awareness of zero-waste living in Singapore.

The Ministry of Environment and Water Resources (MEWR) announced on Tuesday (Jan 22) that the Towards Zero Waste grant will be made available from Feb 1 as the country accelerates its efforts to become a zero-waste nation.

More than seven million tonnes of waste was generated in Singapore in 2017, according to the latest statistics from the National Environment Agency (NEA).

Funding will be issued for initiatives that drive two components - waste reduction and recycling. They must focus on any of the three areas: packaging waste, food waste and electrical and electronic waste, or cover efforts that encourage right recycling in households.

Members of the public, interest groups, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), grassroots organisations and corporations are eligible to apply for the grant.

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Financial institutions key in directing funds towards green development: Masagos Zulkifli

Michelle Teo Channel NewsAsia 22 Jan 19;

SINGAPORE: Financial institutions play an important role in directing capital flows towards sustainable development, Environment and Water Resources Minister Masagos Zulkifli said on Tuesday (22 Jan).

Speaking at a forum organised by Eco-Business and the United Nations Environment Programme, Mr Masagos added that the success of economies and businesses will depend on how well they manage the transition to a low carbon economy.

He added that he was encouraged to see growing numbers of investors who want to "do well" and "do good".

To date, more than S$2 billion of green bonds have been issued in Singapore by both local and foreign issuers.

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Thailand: Investigation finds Thai wild tigers targeted by foreign professional gangs

The Nation 22 Jan 19;

New findings from a three-month investigation have revealed that professional gangs were dispatched across Thailand’s borders to target the Kingdom’s wild tigers.

Freeland, a Bangkok-based international non-governmental organisation working in Asia on environmental conservation and human rights, on Tuesday congratulated Thai authorities for making this discovery and already arresting one of the gangs.

The investigation was initiated after the successful arrest of two Vietnamese men by Thai police in late October following a tip-off from a Thai driver-for-hire.

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Best of our wild blogs: 22 Jan 19

Chek Jawa with signs of dugong
wild shores of singapore

Chinese New Year Resolution – Let’s reduce plastic waste!
Mei Lin NEO

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SP Group announces first major location partner for electric vehicle charging network

Toh Ting Wei Straits Times 21 Jan 19;

SINGAPORE - Energy provider SP Group has partnered with Ascendas-Singbridge Group (ASB) to install electric vehicle charging points in the latter's buildings, the two companies announced on Monday (Jan 21).

As part of the partnership, 24 high-speed chargers have been installed in six of ASB's buildings - Hyflux Innovation Centre, Corporation Place, Techlink, Techplace I, The Capricorn and The Kendall.

Half of the charging points are 43kW alternate current (AC) chargers and the other half comprises 50kW direct current (DC) chargers.

These can power up a mid-sized electric car within an hour, compared with six to eight hours via household chargers.

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New initiative launched to help financial sector be more sustainable

Sue-Ann Tan Straits Times 21 Jan 19;

SINGAPORE - Financial institutions, non-governmental organisations and academics will work together under a new initiative to help businesses be more sustainable.

The Asia Sustainable Finance Initiative (ASFI), which was launched on Monday (Jan 21) at the Parkroyal on Pickering hotel, aims to help shift the region's financial flows towards sustainable outcomes.

It will bring together the finance industry, academia and science-based organisations to help Singapore-based financial institutions operating in the region to deepen their expertise in sustainable finance.

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Giving food waste a new lease of life

Food wastage by households and the food industry in Singapore rose 40% in the past 10 years, to around 809,800 tonnes in 2017. It's time to clean up our act.
MICHAEL LONG Business Times 22 Jan 19;

THE world is gradually transitioning from a linear to a circular economy, as we move towards a new economic model of collaborative consumption.

Along with this paradigm shift, the "take-make-waste" linear consumption model of traditional industries is quickly falling out of favour with the proponents of a new circular economy globally wherein the traditional dynamics of supply and demand are fundamentally transformed. For good reason, a change is necessary. The world now produces in excess of a billion tonnes of garbage every year, much of which goes into landfill and incineration if not exported and recycled.

Ensuring that industries make their output restorative in design is now crucial to sustaining economic growth without putting our environment in jeopardy.

THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY OF FOOD

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Indonesia: Environment ministry to question NTT over plan to temporarily close Komodo park

The Jakarta Post 21 Jan 19;

The Environment and Forestry Ministry will summons representatives from the East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) administration to explain its plan to temporarily close Komodo National Park to visitors for one year.

“We will invite the NTT administration [for a discussion on Komodo]. It is not quite wise to decide it unilaterally and everything has procedures,” Minister Siti Nurbaya said on Monday as quoted by Antara. “We need to listen to what the local administration wants. We also need to listen to [input from] the Tourism Ministry, while we are assessing how and when the proposal will be implemented.”

Siti also warned the NTT administration that decisions regarding conservation areas were in fact solely under the jurisdiction of the central government.

Komodo National Park is the only place in the world where people can see the endangered Komodo dragons in their natural habitat. The park is also an official UNESCO World Heritage site.

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Indonesia: Government drafts industrial change road map to reduce plastic waste

Kharishar Kahfi The Jakarta Post 21 Jan 19;

The government has been working on ways to engage the private sector in its waste reduction efforts, particularly plastic waste, by formulating a road map for businesses to reduce the amount of waste it produces.

Industry is one of the Environment and Forestry Ministry’s primary focuses in its plastic waste reduction plans this year, the ministry’s waste management director general Rosa Vivien Ratnawati has said.

“We want to urge [businesses] to shift their paradigm in manufacturing their products, such as by using more environmentally friendly materials, as part of our efforts to cut down on waste production in the upstream,” Rosa recently told The Jakarta Post.

Rosa said that the ministry's road map would cover three industries: food and beverage manufacturing; food and beverage services, and retail.

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Founders of plastic waste alliance ‘investing billions in new plants’

European NGO says firms are likely to be at centre of global boom in plastic production
Sandra Laville The Guardian 21 Jan 19;

The founding companies behind a self-styled alliance to end plastic waste are among the world’s biggest investors in new plastic productions plants, according to a European NGO.

A majority of the firms which announced this week they were collaborating to try to help tackle plastic pollution are likely to be at the heart of a global boom in plastic production over the next 10 years.

Together the companies have committed $1bn (£778m) over the next five years to reduce plastic production and improve recycling, with an aspiration to raise that to $1.5bn if more members join.

But most of the founding firms have tens of billions of dollars riding on the need for global plastic production to continue growing over the next decade and more.

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World to miss 2020 climate 'turning point': analysis

Patrick GALEY, AFP Yahoo News 22 Jan 19;

Paris (AFP) - The world is on course to miss its "best chance" of preventing runaway climate change by ensuring global greenhouse gas emissions peak in 2020, researchers warned Tuesday.

Even as Earth is buffeted by superstorms, droughts and flooding made worse by rising seas, and as greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise globally, an analysis by the World Resources Institute showed that current efforts to limit temperature increases are falling well short.

In 2017, experts identified six key milestones that mankind must hit by 2020 if the Paris climate goal of limiting global temperature rises to 1.5 Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) is to have a fighting chance of being met.

They include radical changes to how we get our electricity, and to how goods and services are distributed worldwide.

Chief among these are an immediate phasing out of fossil fuels, including a total halt to new coal power plant construction within two years, as well as an end to dirty energy subsidies.

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Best of our wild blogs: 21 Jan 19

Blue Skies Above!
Butterflies of Singapore

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