Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s vision to make the country a destination for foreign company investments neglects the growing demand for clean energy. RE100, a group of global companies committed to using 100% renewable energy, reached an annual total electricity consumption in 2018 almost equal to Indonesia’s total yearly consumption. The group includes big companies, some of which are present in Indonesia, such as Nike and Coca-Cola. One report has stated that their clean energy goal could drive an investment opportunity of US$94 billion.

New York state is forging ahead with hundreds of miles of new high-voltage power lines, the kind of push that clean-energy advocates would like to see copied nationwide. Long-distance transmission is an essential if unglamorous part of strategies to replace fossil-fuel power plants with non-emitting sources. Large solar and onshore wind farms sit on rural land and need a conduit to energy-hungry cities.

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 6 — Clean energy solutions company, Plus Solar Systems Sdn Bhd believes that government policies, digitalisation and smart grid initiatives will act as growth catalysts in the Malaysian renewable energy (RE) industry. Plus Solar chief executive officer and co-founder Ko Chuan Zhen said the government has recognised solar energy generation as a key contributor towards the national 20 per cent RE goal by 2025 with the announcement of the Net Energy Metering (NEM) 3.0 programme last week.

UNIVERSITI Teknologi Mara (UiTM) is now the country’s first and only varsity to own and operate large scale solar photovoltaic (LSSPV) plants. With the commencement of commercial operations of its second LSSPV plant in Pasir Gudang, Johor, last month, UiTM boasts of a combined renewable energy generation capacity of 75MWac (92.58 MWp). The new plant, known as UiTM Solar Park II (USP II), is built on over 45 hectares of land and is estimated to contribute towards the avoidance of 28,000 tonnes of carbon emission, generating 40,000 MWh of clean energy annually.

The COVID-19 pandemic is causing human suffering, destabilizing the global economy and upending the lives of billions of people in unprecedented ways. As we strive to ease the impacts of the crisis, we must also plan now how to recover better. It is projected that foreign direct investment flows into African countries will decline between 25 and 40 per cent in 2020 alone.

The battered oil and gas sector is coming to life in U.S. equity markets thanks to the announcement that multiple vaccines to Covid-19 may be widely available in the spring. Conditions are ripe for a sustained recovery in oil stocks, even if more volatility is likely to continue for the immediate future.

LONDON — The International Energy Agency (IEA) on Thursday cut its 2020 global oil demand forecast and said it does not expect the prospect of a coronavirus vaccine to significantly boost demand “until well into next year.” In its latest closely-watched monthly report, the IEA said it now expects world oil demand to contract by 8.8 million barrels per day this year. That reflects a downward revision of 0.4 million barrels from last month’s assessment.

In his Dec. 13 Outlook essay, “Five myths: The Paris climate agreement,” Paul Bledsoe claimed it is a myth that “existing technology can meet the Paris goals.” In fact, energy efficiency — reducing energy use in buildings, industry, transportation and electricity production — is not only cost-effective now but also absolutely doable with technologies we have today.

WASHINGTON — America’s greenhouse gas emissions from energy and industry plummeted more than 10 percent in 2020, reaching their lowest levels in at least three decades as the coronavirus pandemic slammed the brakes on the nation’s economy, according to an estimate published Tuesday by the Rhodium Group.

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed life on a massive scale, disrupting economies, communities and families. The distribution of the vaccine to every remote village, especially in low- and middle-income countries, has been recognized as a key issue of equity that would prevent 61 percent of subsequent deaths, compared to 33 percent of deaths avoided if the vaccine is distributed to high-income countries first.

Africa is increasingly becoming the new global hub for energy solutions, as it is an untapped market for renewable energy resources. The shift to sustainable clean energy solutions presents an enormous investment opportunity for domestic as well as international investors. Renewable energy also provides an opportunity for the African continent to address climate change and attain the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development goals on affordable and clean energy.

Since the adoption of the landmark Paris Agreement on climate change in 2015, global momentum to tackle the climate crisis has been building. Progress has been made on almost every front, from bold corporate emissions-reduction targets and investors shifting away from coal to a surge of support for net-zero targets and a rising movement of youth activists from Uganda to India, culminating in Greta Thunberg being recognised as Time Magazine’s 2019 “Person of the Year.”