The momentum toward carbon trading in Asean has been growing over the past years, marking an important shift in the region’s climate strategy. Key member states, including Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam have launched or are advancing carbon market initiatives, alongside efforts to create a unified framework for cross-border trades with regional partners like Japan.

A vertiginous outcrop with more than 500 volcanoes, El Hierro, the most westerly of the Canary Islands, is less than 12 miles (20km) wide but features elevation differences of more than 1,500 metres. Swept by strong Atlantic winds and pockmarked with volcanic craters, it has spent the past decade harnessing its natural features to create clean electricity – with the goal of being the first island to reach self-sufficiency in energy.

Japan wants renewable energy to account for up to 50% of its electricity mix by fiscal year 2040 with nuclear power taking up another 20%, according to a draft of its revised basic energy policy, as it makes a clean energy push while meeting rising power demand.

EVE Energy Malaysia Sdn. Bhd. (EVE), a global leader in lithium battery manufacturing, inaugurated its new manufacturing facility in Padang Meha, Kedah. The state-of-the-art will serve customers in the power tool and electric two-wheeler sectors across Southeast Asia, Europe, and North America. When fully operational, the facility will employ 2,000 Malaysians with majority in technical field background.

Chugoku Electric Power on Saturday restarted its Shimane nuclear power station in western Japan, shuttered since shortly after the 2011 Fukushima meltdown, the company said. The long-delayed restart of the plant's 820 megawatt (MW) No. 2 reactor, which was shut down in January 2012, boosts the number of Japan's operational reactors to 14, with a combined capacity of 13,253 MW.

Millions of tons of coal ash left over from burning the planet’s dirtiest fossil fuel are sitting in ponds and landfills, able to leach into waterways and pollute soil. But this toxic waste may also be a treasure trove for the rare earth elements needed to propel the world toward clean energy.

European Union countries plan to promote geothermal energy as they hunt for ways to replace Russian gas and bring down energy prices, a draft EU document showed. The 27 EU members will jointly endorse geothermal energy for the first time at a meeting of EU energy ministers in Brussels next week, according to a draft document seen by Reuters, and will ask the European Commission to come up with a bloc-wide plan to get projects off the ground.

Cypark Resources Bhd (KL:CYPARK) is partnering with the Terengganu state government to develop a 500 megawatt (MW) large hybrid hydro floating solar (HHFS) plant at Tasik Kenyir. In a statement, Cypark said it has signed a heads of agreement for the joint venture (JV) with Terengganu Incorporated Sdn Bhd (Terengganu Inc), the state’s strategic investment arm. The 500MW HHFS project is the first of its kind in Malaysia, harnessing Tasik Kenyir's water for clean energy generation.  

Future PR1MA housing units in Pahang may be installed with rooftop solar panels to reduce electricity bills. Local Government, Housing, Environment and Green Technology Committee chairman Datuk Mohammad Fakhruddin Mohd Ariff said the state government and Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) were refining the mechanism for installing solar rooftops. "The state government and TNB are looking into installing rooftop solar panels for PR1MA units.

Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) and Singapore’s licensed electricity importer, Sembcorp Power Pte Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Sembcorp Industries Ltd, would be advancing the region energy sustainability initiative after both firms signed a Renewable Energy Supply Agreement (RESA) on Dec 9. This milestone, part of the Cross-border Electricity Sales for RE (CBES RE) Scheme, aligned with the ASEAN Power Grid (APG) initiative and Malaysia’s energy transition goals of facilitating RE trade with neighbouring countries through Energy Exchange Malaysia (ENEGEM).

Canada, a veteran in nuclear energy, is working with South-east Asia as the region seeks to capture atomic opportunities. A nuclear energy working group was launched by the Singapore-based Canada-Asean Business Council on Nov 29 at the inaugural Canada-Asean Energy Transition Summit held in the Republic.  

Tenaga Nasional Bhd has signed the MY07 Electricity Supply Agreement (ESA) with hyperscale data centre solutions platform and Bain Capital-backed Bridge Data Centres (BDC), according to w.media's report on Friday. The report noted that Malaysia's fastest ESA delivery was agreed upon to meet the urgent energy needs of an advanced data centre, citing TNB.