International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, has issued its inaugural Indonesian rupiah Komodo green bond, attracting strong investor demand and raising Rp 2 trillion (US$134 million) to combat climate change.
“The issuance of IFC’s green Komodo bond underscores our commitment to support Indonesia in achieving environmentally sustainable economic growth,” said Nena Stoiljkovic, IFC’s vice president for Asia and the Pacific.
“The bond allows us to mobilize international funding into Indonesia’s climate-friendly projects and we intend to replicate and scale up this model to address the country’s climate challenges.”
This is the first such green Komodo offshore rupiah-denominated issuance by a multilateral development bank for investment into climate projects in Indonesia.
The five-year green bond, which will be listed on both the London Stock Exchange and the Singapore Stock Exchange, will support the local-currency market in Indonesia, funding the first-ever green bond issued in Indonesia by an IFC client, Bank OCBC NISP. The proceeds will finance underlying infrastructure and climate-related projects.
Jingdong Hua, IFC’s vice president and treasurer, said the first ever green Komodo bond issued in rupiah for climate investment in Indonesia was a significant milestone for IFC and for Indonesia to help the private sector manage foreign exchange risk through local-currency financing.
Since launching the Green Bond Program, IFC has raised billions of dollars for clean energy, climate-smart cities, green buildings and green finance. As revealed in IFC’s Green Bond Impact Report released on Monday, IFC issued 32 green bonds totaling $1.8 billion in the fiscal year that ended June 30.
Risen Energy recently signed a contract with Surya Prakash Vietnam Energy Co, a subsidiary of Shapoorji Pallonji Group for the 50MW project, which is expected to be operational at the end of June 2019, with electricity supplied to EVN, the Vietnamese state grid.
Major China-based PV manufacturer Risen Energy has secured a 50MW PV power plant through India’s Shapoorji Pallonji Group, a private infrastructure development company to be built Vietnam.
Risen Energy recently signed a contract with Surya Prakash Vietnam Energy Co, a subsidiary of Shapoorji Pallonji Group for the 50MW project, which is expected to be operational at the end of June 2019, with electricity supplied to EVN, the Vietnamese state grid.
The project is said to include 26MW of tracker based 72-cell multicrystalline modules with 360Wp power and 24MW using a fixed mount system. The plant is expected to generate an average annual power generation of 81,429MWh, according to the company.
Liu Dong, general manager of Risen Energy Vietnam, said, “Following an in-depth analysis of the Vietnamese market and an on-site investigation of the project, we selected the most comprehensive and best-performing power generation solutions given the project’s particulars, including the tracking systems, with an eye to increasing the ROI, while positioning the facility to be one that can act as a demonstration model for future such tracking systems. As we look further down the road, we expect to work closely with high-quality companies, including Surya Prakash, delivering more professional and reliable PV power generation solutions to the market.”
The latest project contract some closely following Risen Energy’s announcement in late September of a contract signed with Vietnam-based Tasco to build a 61MW solar project in Ninh Thuan, Vietnam, also to be connected to the grid in 2019.
The company expects to reach around 160MW of total installation PV capacity in Vietnam in 2018.
Risen Energy is also planning to increase its PV power plant project business from 800MW in 2018 to 1.5GW in 2019.
TAGUIG CITY, OCt. 8 — The Department of Energy (DOE) is setting its sights on present energy investment opportunities in Mindanao that will spark new developments and growth in the region.
In this regard, the DOE, through its Investment Promotion Office, is launching the Mindanao Energy Investment Forum (MEIF) to be held on 11 October 2018 at the Grand Regal Hotel in Davao.
The forum aims to present opportunities and updates on energy developments, which include the one-grid interconnection project and the establishment of additional power capacities in the area.
With the theme “Transcending Investments: Role in Encouraging Investors in the Energy Sector,” this year’s energy investment forum series seeks to match investors with possible energy projects in Mindanao.
The DOE will bridge investors with financing facilities available for energy projects, concerned government institutions and the business sector for knowledge sharing on the industry’s best practices in the region.
The 2018 MEIF will also have a panel discussion that will cover topics on the government agencies’ roles, and the current policies and programs in facilitating and ensuring the smooth implementation of energy projects in Mindanao.
For a better business sector engagement, the invited 2018 MEIF participants include the existing and potential energy investors in Mindanao, Energy Associations, Government Agencies, Chambers of Commerce, Financing Facilities, Electric Cooperatives and Local Government Units.
“The DOE is holding all these in order to empower you, the energy stakeholders, for better coordination and collaboration. Together, we can make a bigger impact in creating wealth for our nation,” Sec. Cusi stated.
KUALA LUMPUR: RAM Ratings has rated the world’s first United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) sukuk issued by HSBC Amanah Malaysia Bhd.
The sukuk is under the bank’s RM3bil multi-currency sukuk programme (2012/2032) which carries an AAA/stable rating.
“This global first by HSBC Amanah puts Malaysia again on the sustainable finance world map,” says Foo Su Yin, CEO of RAM Ratings.
The proceeds from this sukuk will be utilised for working capital in the ordinary course of HSBC Amanah’s Islamic banking business, to finance eligible businesses and projects in accordance with the HSBC SDG bond framework.
HSBC Amanah’s financial institution ratings stand at AAA/Stable/P1, premised on the bank’s strategic role as the Islamic arm of HSBC Bank Malaysia Bhd (rated AAA/Stable/P1 by RAM) as well as its status as one of two global hubs of HSBC Holdings plc’s Amanah network.
“HSBC Amanah is operationally integrated with HSBC Bank Malaysia and benefits from the HSBC Group’s solid global franchise, international network and expertise.
“We believe that the Bank will continue to enjoy parental support when needed,” said RAM.
RAM is an active contributor to sustainability and green finance globally.
On May 26, 2016, RAM joined the global line-up of six pioneer credit rating agency signatories to UN-supported Principles for Responsible Investment’s Statement on ESG in Credit Ratings.
In 2017, RAM rated the world’s first green sukuk issued by a solar power player, Tadau Energy Sdn Bhd.
In 2015, RAM rated the world’s first Sustainable Responsible Investment sukuk – Sukuk Ihsan – pioneered by Khazanah Nasional Bhd, the Malaysian government’s strategic investment fund.
RAM’s sister company, RAM Consultancy Services Sdn Bhd, is the first Asean-based provider of sustainability ratings and second opinions on green bonds and sukuk.
Sarawak has Bakun (picture), Murum and Batang Ai hydro power plants while Baleh is under construction. — Picture courtesy of Sarawak Energy Berhad
KUCHING, Oct 7 — Sarawak will be taking Canada as a model in the management and governance of its mega dams and water usage, Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Openg said today.
He said Canada, in particular the province of Ontario, has a long history and reputation of hydro power generation with the first hydro plant built about 100 years ago.
He said hydro power plants produced more than 70,000 MW of electricity in Canada which is second only to China.
Abang Johari led a state delegation on a four-day study of Canada which ended today.
Sarawak has Bakun, Murum and Batang Ai hydro power plants while Baleh is under construction and is expected to be completed in 2025.Bengoh dam, however, supplies raw water for treatment plants for the southern region of Sarawak.
In a statement issued by the Chief Minister’s Office, Abang Johari said Sarawak has to learn from Ontario on various aspects of water management such as water policy, water legislation, water research, development of water bodies and environmental enforcement and compliance.
“The things learned during the trip would be useful input in Sarawak’s desire to formulate a water policy and water legislation in order to turn water into a precious economic asset,” he pointed out.
The chief minister said the visit had demonstrated to his delegation how water was treated as a precious commodity to generate economic returns for the country, particularly Ontario.
He said he was particularly impressed with how various legislation had been introduced in the province to regulate the many uses of water while Sarawak had practically none.
“The Ontario water legislation had also provided a clear picture of what came under federal and provincial jurisdiction in Canada in the governance of the extensive system of water bodies in the country, including the Great Lakes,” he added.
He pointed out that Ontario even had a special institution to conduct research on water citing the Water Institute at the University of Waterloo near Toronto.
The Water Institute is among the places of interest included in the chief minister’s itinerary in Ontario.
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia has agreed to appoint experts to be part of the European Commission’s panel which will look into indirect land use, which is crucial to avert discrimination by the EU countries.
Primary Industries Minister Teresa Kok said on Sunday the experts would sit in the EC’s expert panel on indirect land use change (ILUC). The decision of the panel could impact future use of palm oil as part of the biofuel mix within the European Renewable Energy Directive (RED) II.
Kok, who is leading a palm oil mission in Switzerland, Spain and Belgium, had on Sunday welcomed the EC’s initiative for this panel which would enable consultation with palm oil producers, including Malaysian palm oil experts on various key scientific principles under ILUC.
“This consultation process is important as we do not want our palm oil commodity to be discriminated upon,” she said.
“An expert panel from the European Commission will be visiting Malaysia at the end of this month to hold discussions with Malaysian experts on these issues. Our experts will sit in the panel,” she added.
Kok said it was extremely important for the EU Expert Panel to get a firsthand account of Malaysian palm oil cultivation and processing practices. This was crucial for them to appreciate the complexity of various operations to produce sustainable palm oil.
The move, she said, was positive in light of concerns that EU might use ILUC criteria to justify phasing out or restricting palm oil in the RED II mandate.
ILUC is generally not supported by industry and academic experts since the principles upon which it is based is fraught with unproven assumptions. Indeed, the very basis of defining the concept of ILUC has not been universally verified, even within the EU, according to the Primary Industries Ministry.
Malaysia’s concern is that this could determine the future use of palm oil as part of the EU’s RED II mandate despite the uncertainty surrounding ILUC.
“Malaysia is willing to listen and actively participate in any debate on ILUC. However, we stress that this should not be lopsided against palm oil and even other crops.
“If the criteria that defines ILUC are not based on well-accepted scientific principles, Malaysia will use various international fora and trade negotiations to secure a just outcome for our palm oil exports,” she added.
During her visit, she was accompanied by officials from the ministry, Malaysian Palm Oil Board, Malaysian Palm Oil Council, Malaysian Palm Oil Certification Council and Forest Research Institute of Malaysia.
The delegation held meetings with Karmenu Vella, the European Commissioner for Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Director-General for Environment, Education, Transport and Energy of the Council of the European Union, Dr. Jaroslaw Pietras, and managing director (Asia Pacific) of the European External Action Services, Gunnar Wiegand.
Earlier in Madrid, Spain, Kok met Indonesian Trade Minister Enggartiasto Lukita to discuss the challenges facing palm oil in Europe. Both parties feel that many of these actions, including the “No Palm Oil” labels on products, are discriminatory.
Malaysia and Indonesia, as producer nations that depend on palm oil for a healthy GDP, agree in principle to collaborate in defending palm oil’s interest and overcome the prevailing misconceptions surrounding palm oil.
“As founding members of the Council of Palm Oil Producing Countries (CPOPC), we aim to strengthen CPOPC membership by enrolling other palm oil producers, and use this international council to address the challenges in Europe,” she said.
Kok stressed the Malaysian Government will continue to engage and dialogue with the various institutions in the EU to address concerns on palm oil.
Chinese tourists account for more visitors to Thailand — and much of Southeast Asia — than from any other country.
Buddhist monks snap photos on the Mekong in the town of Sob Ruak, northern Thailand, near the borders with Myanmar and Laos.
The Thai village of Sob Ruak, at the heart of the Golden Triangle region where Thailand, Laos and Myanmar meet, is no exception. Tour buses routinely disgorge thousands of Chinese tourists to buy trinkets, snap selfies and tour the nearby Hall of Opium Museum. And it’s not just tourists coming from China.
About every month, a few Chinese gunboats cruise down the Mekong River through Myanmar and Laos from China’s Guanlei port. They announce their arrival with a barrage of horns, then begin a long, sweeping turn back upriver just short of Thai waters, their propellers churning the mocha-brown water. Thai patrol boats sit bobbing gently, watching.
As the Chinese border patrol boats leave, they let off one more long, loud burst of horns before heading back upriver, sometimes accompanied by a Lao gunboat.
The Golden Triangle is known for being a drug-trafficking hub. The monthly patrols aim “to make the border river safer,” according to China’s Xinhua News Agency, after the killing of 13 Chinese sailors in 2011.
But some analysts see a different interpretation: intimidation.
The Chinese gunboat presence is “just to remind neighbors of the influence they can wield and that the hard power, the sharp power they hold is increasing, and I don’t see that ebbing anytime soon,” says Elliot Brennan, a research fellow at the Institute for Security and Development Policy based in Bangkok.
China’s economic and political influence is growing all over the world, particularly in Southeast Asia, its own backyard. China’s Belt and Road Initiative is extending that influence, with the construction of roads, high-speed trains and ports in Southeast Asia well underway, which will give Chinese goods greater access to markets in the region and beyond.
Chinese border patrol gunboats come downriver from the Yunnan province about once a month in a show of force to keep the Mekong River safe, as China’s Xinhua News Agency puts it.
What’s more, China is building a series of hydropower dams on the Mekong, which analysts say will produce needed electricity while posing major threats to the environment — and will further expand its control in the region.
NPR recently reported along the Mekong River in Southeast Asian hot spots where China’s expansion is already being felt and, in many cases, feared.
“The control of both the South China Sea and the Mekong will strategically sandwich mainland Southeast Asia,” Brennan says. “Beijing’s control of Southeast Asian rivers is the other half of the so-called salami-slicing strategy in the region.”
He is referring to China’s approach to gradually reclaim and build on reefs in contested waters of the South China Sea. The United States and its allies are pressing their claim to freedom of navigation in the disputed waters near China’s newly constructed islands.
But China has a natural advantage on the Mekong. The river starts on the Tibetan Plateau in China — in Tibet, it’s called the Dzachu; in other parts of China, the Lancang Jiang — and runs nearly 3,000 miles through five Southeast Asian countries before emptying into the South China Sea.
“Unlike the South China Sea, the Mekong space does not have really other major regional powers involved,” says Thitinan Pongsudhirak of Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University. “So China does not have to contend with the United States like in the South China Sea or Australia or India and all the other countries.”
Damming the Mekong
For over a decade, China has been building hydropower stations on its stretch of the Mekong River. Ten dams have gone up so far, with several more planned, according to the Stimson Center, a nonprofit think tank in Washington, D.C.
“This is a situation I feel can degenerate,” says Thitinan, who has been studying the Mekong and China’s growing influence along it.
“If more dams are built and water is more scarce, then … China can use its upstream position as a leverage and even as a coercive instrument,” he says.
Thitinan notes that roughly 60 million people downstream — in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam — depend on the river for most of their food and/or income. He says the dams are already affecting the region.
Phongsee Sriattana, 52, runs a fishing tackle shop in the Thai village of Sob Ruak. She says the river’s water levels and fish stocks have changed dramatically since China began building its dams. The closest one is in Jinghong, 180 miles upriver, in China’s Yunnan province.
“When I was younger, I would go to the river with my mother to catch fish,” she says. “And there were so many they just jumped into our drip net. And I’d scoop them into my bucket.”
But that is not the case since the Chinese built dams upstream, she says. “When the Chinese want to send goods downstream, they release the water,” she says. “When they don’t need to sail their boats, they keep the water in their dams.”
She says the area used to have the famed and critically endangered Mekong giant catfish, but not anymore. “The water levels fluctuate too much,” she says. “The fish can’t lay their eggs here.”
Overfishing and downstream dams have contributed to the species’ demise, biologists say. The Chinese dams also have an impact. They reduce water levels and the amount of nutrient-rich sediment needed for farming downstream.
A few miles downriver, fisherman Singkha Wantanam, 61, sits in his tiny shack on the river’s bank and frets. “I’m worried they will build more dams,” he says, “but there’s nothing to do to stop them. And then there will be even fewer fish.”
Fisherman Singhkha Wantanam repairs his net in his shack on the Mekong near Sob Ruak, Thailand. He complains China’s upstream dams have caused drastic changes in water levels and a reduction in the number of fish in the river.
Bigger cargo ships
It’s not just the dams that have people upset. China also plans to make parts of the Mekong wider and deeper to fit larger vessels and increase commerce along the river.
Right now, 100-ton boats unload cargo at Chiang Saen Port about 15 miles downriver from Sob Ruak. China wants to use ships that can carry 500 tons of goods, all the way from Yunnan province down to Luang Prabang in Laos. That would mean blowing up rocks and dredging the rapids at a narrow part of the river. Environmentalists warn that would do even more damage to the Mekong and those who depend on it.
“If they blast the rocks and rapids, it means they will destroy the ecosystem,” says local environmental activist Niwat Roikaew. “When they destroy the ecosystem, it means they destroy food security for humans, for animals, for everything.”
Niwat wears a baseball cap that reads “The Mekong is Not for Sale.” Standing on the Thai side of the river, he points to one of the narrow spots China wants to blast to make the river wider and deeper.
When three Chinese survey vessels came last year to figure out how, Niwat led demonstrations against the plans. After months of protests, the Thai government put the project on hold.
But political scientist Thitinan says that “it’s a matter of time” for the plan to go ahead.
“For Thailand, this is something that China … has been demanding, and China has a pretty heavy price to exact if you don’t go along. The pressure is going to keep coming,” he says. He adds that “the pressure goes two ways,” as there are Thai businesses want more trade with China, too.
China plans to widen and deepen the Mekong near the Thai town of Chiang Khong to allow bigger Chinese cargo boats to carry their loads farther downstream to Luang Prabang in Laos.
Chinese phenomenon in Phnom Penh
Several hundred miles downriver, Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh is undergoing a building frenzy largely fueled by Chinese money, public and private. And the port city of Sihanoukville farther south, many Cambodians say, is being transformed into an almost completely Chinese city.
Kim Heang, the CEO of Khmer Real Estate Co. in Phnom Penh, says the Chinese “feel safe to invest in Cambodia.”
“When Chinese come here, they have protection” he says. “Nobody can do something wrong to Chinese investors because they have support of Chinese government.”
When asked whether Cambodians benefit too, he answers “yes and no.”
“The people who come to invest will get the benefit, of course,” he says. Rich Cambodians who sell them property will, too. But while some ordinary locals can get service jobs related to the investments, he explains, it isn’t the kind of work that lets them provide their family with a good future. As for the majority of Cambodians, he adds, “They are not happy.”
One certain Cambodian beneficiary is clear: Prime Minister Hun Sen. China’s backing has helped embolden him to eviscerate the Cambodian political opposition, crack down on independent media, intimidate civil society groups and extend his 33-year-long rule. When the United States and the European Union withdrew funding for Cambodia’s election held in July, China stepped in to provide $20 million for voting equipment. All that made it easier for Hun Sen and his ruling party to sweep the vote, widely condemned as a “fraud” by human rights groups and foreign governments.
But the government’s reliance on China’s largesse, critics say, leaves Cambodia at risk.
“At this stage, the fact that Cambodia has been shifting away from the West makes Cambodia almost completely relying on China for backing — domestically, internationally and economically,” says Virak Ou, head of the Phnom Penh think tank Future Forum. “Which means we are beholden to China.”
Day laborers outside Sob Ruak, Thailand, load energy drinks onto Chinese cargo boats on the Mekong for a trip upriver.
A megadam for Cambodia, too
Among China’s series of infrastructure bids for Cambodia, one project stands out: a megadam planned for the town of Sambor, about a six-hour car ride upriver from Phnom Penh. If built, it would be the largest mainstream dam on the lower Mekong.
But researchers and local residents fear it could do major damage.
“We don’t want to see a dam happen here,” says 47-year-old Seng Chanti, who has lived on the island of Koh Pdao, in the middle of the river, almost his entire life. He’s a fisherman but splits his time showing tourists the rare — and endangered — Irrawaddy dolphins that survive in this part of the river.
“If the dam happens, for sure, there will be no more dolphins and no more fish in the area,” Seng says.
Many international experts agree.
“The location of Sambor means that if the full 2,600-megawatt project were to be built out, it would essentially destroy the fisheries in Cambodia,” says Courtney Weatherby, a researcher at the Stimson Center’s Southeast Asia program.
The California-based Natural Heritage Institute produced a highly critical study of the Sambor dam project, commissioned by the Cambodian government.
The Sambor dam could “literally kill the river” by devastating fish stocks and causing other environmental wreckage, the report’s executive summary said.
Cambodia imports most of its energy. It needs cheaper electricity than what it buys from its neighbors. That means Prime Minister Hun Sen may not heed the report’s warnings, which makes some residents worried.
“If there’s no more fishing and no more ecotourism, how will we live?” says 53-year-old Phum Saoin, another fisherman who helps run ecotourism tours around Sambor. Sure, there will be electricity, he says, “but we cannot eat electricity.”
Chinese firms have helped finance more than half a dozen other hydropower projects on Mekong tributaries in Cambodia and neighboring Laos, including Cambodia’s controversial 400-megawatt Sesan 2 dam that went online last year.
The dams already built on the mainstream Mekong in China proper have, by some estimates, reduced sediment loads downriver by more than 50 percent. With more dams planned, water levels and sediment load could drop even further.
There is also a doomsday scenario for China’s downstream neighbors.
“Long term, China, being one of the countries with the least amount of water allocation per capita in the world, is going to need water,” says Brian Eyler, the Stimson Center’s Southeast Asia project director.
“If political directives change, then perhaps engineers are going to look at ways to get that water from Mekong dams into China proper. And then we’re looking at a big problem, particularly in the dry season, when the water of the upper Mekong is all the Mekong downstream has,” he says.
Without that water, the world’s largest inland fishery, which produces as much as a quarter of global freshwater catch, would be in danger. The livelihoods of tens of millions of people living in the lower Mekong would be as well, because of the loss of water, fish and sediment that helps produce the fertile soil and abundant crop — especially rice — they depend on.
For them, China’s influence isn’t a hypothetical. It’s something they’re feeling more every day along with the effects of climate change and habitat loss.
With the Energy Ministry having recently set a new target for Thailand to make a gradual transition away from fossil fuels to decarbonise energy generation in the country, recent research by two Harvard University scholars provides useful information for the policymakers. It gives a realistic assessment of the pros and cons of two renewable energy sources — wind and solar.
In two papers, published on Thursday in the journals Environmental Research Letters and Joule, the two researchers, David Keith and Lee Miller, report on what has been acclaimed as the most accurate modelling yet of how increasing wind power would affect the climate.
They used data on the locations of 57,636 wind turbines around the US along with other data sets to quantify the power density of 411 wind farms and 1,150 solar photovoltaic (PV) plants operating in the US during 2016.
