India's greenhouse emissions rate dropped by 33 per cent in 14 years, officials report. This drop is faster than expected and is down to a rise in renewable energy generation and forest cover, according to two officials who have seen the latest assessment made for submission to the United Nations. The report's findings showed India well on the way to meeting a commitment to the United Nations Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), to reduce emissions intensity by 45 per cent from the 2005 level by 2030.

British households are making more green energy upgrades than ever before after installing a record number of solar panels and heat pumps in the first half of the year, according to the industry’s official standards body. The industry figures show there were more green energy installations in June than in previous years. On average, more than 17,000 households installed solar panels every month this year, while the number of homes installing heat pumps reached 3,000 a month for the first time, according to the data.

Tenaga Nasional Berhad has established the Green Lane Pathway, an exclusive pathway and strategic offering for Malaysia’s data centre market to provide efficient and environmentally responsible solutions for data centre operators, and to streamline the on-boarding process for data centres, expedite approvals and facilitate a smooth setup of data centre operations in Malaysia.

It’s been a rocky road so far for the California High-Speed Rail Authority’s promising new project. This high speed train connecting 1287.5 kilometres of the state was called “a bullet train that is both one of the most expensive per mile and one of the slowest in the world” by Elon Musk. It was to be the start of a revolutionary new transport system connecting the west coast of the US up to Vancouver in Canada. It would also go east to Las Vegas before eventually threading its way across the entire continent. The scheme was endorsed by Presidents Obama and Biden.

Sabah is keen to expand the biomass industry, given its benefits to green energy and related downstream industries. Sabah Industrial Development and Entrepreneurship Minister Phoong Jin Zhe said most countries were now transitioning or in the process of adapting green technology or green energy. In realising the advantages of biomass in the production of high value-added products, such as bio-pellets, bio-fuels and bio-based chemicals, Phoong said his ministry is drafting the Sabah Biomass Policy to further develop the industry.

The Penang Development Corporation (PDC), a state government agency, has set forth plans to expand its presence in the renewable energy (RE) sector, specifically focusing on solar energy, with the intention of making it one of its core businesses in the future. According to Datuk Aziz Bakar, the Chief Executive Officer of PDC, this move aligns with the state’s vision of transitioning to a green economy and the country’s goal of having RE account for 70% of its electricity generation by 2050.

This is part of TNB’s ongoing drive to strengthen the Asean Power Grid (APG) interconnectivity and to reinforce TNB Power Generation Sdn Bhd’s (TNB Genco) presence as the power generation arm in Asean countries. In a statement, the utility company said it is keen to form a joint collaboration committee to optimise resource utilisation, bolster energy security, and promote knowledge and expertise sharing through innovative mechanisms for energy exchange, leveraging TNB’s educational and research institutions.

Egypt's natural gas production fell to a three-year low in the first five months of 2023, figures from the Joint Organisations Data Initiative (JODI) show, raising questions about the country's efforts to position itself as a regional energy hub. Currently the country is grappling with power shortages when a heatwave has driven up demand for cooling. Gas production between January and May declined by 9% year-on-year and 12% when compared to the same period in 2021.

Singapore is seeking alternative sources of green-energy imports to meet its ambitious climate goals, as talks with Indonesia continue to stall. Officials from Singapore have already started visiting other countries, mostly around Southeast Asia, to secure supplies of renewable energy, said Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean. Speaking to Indonesian news outlets in Singapore earlier this month, Teo said the country was looking for sources of green electricity “not just from Indonesia”.

Malaysia announced a radical plan on Thursday to lease rooftops to install solar power, as the government seeks to raise the nation’s share of renewable energy to 70 per cent of total power generation by 2050. The concept is to pay households for their roof space to generate solar energy. It is one of several measures the government intends to implement under its National Energy Transition Roadmap. The road map “is designed to break the mould and make clean energy a financially relevant option to most households today”, Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli said.

Eighteen months into a historic interest-rate upcycle, South-East Asia’s economic prospects continue to stand out in a world faced with high inflation and soft demand. Three long-term trends will ensure that this dynamic region remains the growth engine of the world. Our latest forecast is for the six largest economies in South-East Asia to grow by 4.2% this year and 4.8% next year, far outstripping the expansion expected in the developed world (1.1% in 2023 and 0.7% in 2024).

Malaysia has launched programs to promote renewable energy in a country that has relied heavily on fossil fuels, hoping to lead Southeast Asia in transition to a greener economy. But the ambitious targets, such as having renewables supply 70% of the total energy supply by 2050, have experts stressing that the government needs to roll out complementary regulatory frameworks to support the transition.