Our Focus Areas

July 5, 2016

Hong Kong’s E-Waste Nightmare: Where Old Phones Go To Die

Where do old phones and computers go to die? More and more, aging motherboards and hard disk drives and touch-screens are broken up in illegal waste dumps in Hong Kong. By Asia Business Council Executive Director Mark Clifford.

June 29, 2016

Watch Out, Coal! Dubai Announces Plans For World’s Lowest Cost Solar Plant

King Coal is taking a lot of blows recently. But at least it could usually count on being the cheapest alternative. Now even that’s called into question. By Asia Business Council Executive Director Mark Clifford.

October 30, 2015

2015 Chris Welles Prize interview

Asia Business Council Executive Director Mark Clifford discussed in an interview the book The Greening of Asia: The Business Case for Solving Asia’s Environmental Emergency. He was awarded the 2015 Chris Welles Prize by the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism for describing the environmental cost of Asia’s growth.

October 12, 2015

Hong Kong Utility Executive On Paris Climate Talks: ‘The World Doesn’t Want Another Failure’

Business is getting tired of waiting for climate negotiators to get their act together on pricing carbon, says Richard Lancaster, the CEO of CLP Holdings. By Asia Business Council Executive Director Mark Clifford.

September 30, 2015

China’s Xi Jinping Announces Cap-and-Trade Carbon Program: Will it Work?

China’s President Xi Jinping won kudos for announcing on his state visit to Washington, D.C. in late September that China will by 2017 enact a cap-and-trade system designed to cut carbon emissions. By Asia Business Council Executive Director Mark Clifford.

September 10, 2015

Indonesia’s Forest Fires Choke Malaysia, Singapore: ‘Burning Land….Just for Fun’

Planes can’t land, schools are closed, states of emergency imposed and the Indonesian President Joko Widodo makes a surprise visit to still-smoking South Sumatra. This is the new normal for Southeast Asian summers — choking haze from Indonesian forest fires. By Asia Business Council Executive Director Mark Clifford.

September 3, 2015

China’s Economic Slowdown: We May Have Seen Peak Coal

The coal market has known that China’s economy has been slowing even before the recent bout of stock market turbulence. By Asia Business Council Executive Director Mark Clifford.

August 15, 2015

Huawei: Chinese Telecoms Giant Says Its Growth Will Be Green

Huawei is one of those really big Chinese companies that should be better known in the rest of the world. By Asia Business Council Executive Director Mark Clifford.

August 12, 2015

Xinjiang Goldwind: The Profits Are Blowin’ In The Wind

When China’s largest wind turbine manufacturer, Xinjiang Goldwind Science and Technology Co. Ltd., successfully floated its first U.S. dollar debt offering in July, I decided to take another look at the company. By Asia Business Council Executive Director Mark Clifford.

May 21, 2015

Coming Clean on Pollution in Asia

Asia Business Council Executive Director Mark Clifford noted in an interview the need for much of Asia to clean up its actions stands out today as an imperative few companies can ignore.