As sustainability and green issues have become serious economic drivers, I have contributed more and more articles to media outlets and provided services to the commercial sector. Both business and financial features examining markets, the impact of new regulations on companies and sectors, as well as straight ‘green’ stories are increasingly in demand. My experience in business models, financial markets and technology, have all helped me create a demand for work.
Many of basic building blocks of sustainability had long been in the mix at companies at the forefront of this sector, with issues of ethical investment long-debated in the asset management industry. As this grew, so did companies’ acceptance of good corporate governance and methodologies of critically measuring these elements – material common to Finance Week, for example.
CleanBiz.Asia, January 17, 2011 By: Gerry O’Kane While recent share news saw some of China’s solar companies making gains in recent days, the China CleanTech Index lost 48 percent of its value during 2011. The terrible performance was reflected in monthly December loss of 9.4 percent, compared with a 0.2 percent loss for the...
Follow the Money CleanBiz.Asia, January 13th, 2012 Gerry O’Kane There is an intriguing fight developing between clean and renewable business and non-green industries in Burma. In a very public announcement – to reporters in Rangoon – the minister for electricity Khin Maung Soe halted the construction of a Thai-backed coal-fired power station. It comes...
Follow the Money December 13th, 2011 Gerry O’Kane The cleantech business must be worrying what the news of Haitong Securities pulling its USD1.7 billion Hong Kong initial public offering (IPO) on the grounds of poor market conditions, will do to their prospects.Guodian Technology and Environment Group, a maker of wind equipment, will price its...
November 30, 2011 By: Gerry O’Kane CleanBiz.Asia Temperatures are already beginning to rise among delegates at the UN climate summit in Durban. While around the outskirts of conference generally “nice” and “positive” position papers were released, it was the news that Canada certainly won’t make any further greenhouse gas cuts and may even withdraw...
Date: November 28, 2011 By: Gerry O’Kane CleanBiz.Asia Four Asian countries have been named as being among the world’s worst perpetrators of deforestation. Indonesia, Cambodia, North Korea and Papua New Guinea were rated as being at ‘extreme risk’ with economic growth, poverty, corruption and the rise of biofuels being identified as being among the...
CleanBiz.Asia, November 11, 2011 By: Gerry O’Kane There has been a flurry of announcements from the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) market, indicating a renewed interest in a “sustainable” goldmine that was worth about USD48.8 billion last year for China alone. One of the developments has been a new database from British researchers. Last week...
October 28, 2011 By: Gerry O’Kane CleanBiz.Asia Implications in the cleantech war that is developing globally can be seen in the latest research into R&D investment and innovation. Research from consultants Booz & Company into the world’s top 1,000 spenders on R&D, show that while there had been recovery in spending by North American...
Follow the Money Tuesday, October 18th, 2011 By: Gerry O’Kane One simply cannot ignore the Burma/China debate over the Myitsone hydropower plant project, which the Burmese president Thein Sein cancelled unexpectedly earlier this month. The story has the cynics guffawing in the aisles. On the one hand you have a Chinese state administration spluttering...
Date: October 05, 2011 By: Gerry O’Kane CleanBiz.Asia The seedy business of shark fishing is coming under increasing pressure in its own main market – Asia. It’s a business that could be worth over USD30 billion a year. The latest move against the business was the announcement of Singapore’s supermarket chain Cold Storage (a...
