Local News

• ‘Green’ meetings take off here (Straits Times via Wildsingapore) - More companies are starting to hold green meetings and requesting for eco-friendly measures to be included in the hotels and convention centres.
• A green meeting place (Today Online) - City Development Limited’s new eco-friendly City Square Mall will be opened at the end of next year, and one of the anchor tenants, NTUC FairPrice, has pledged to implement green practices such as checkout lanes for shoppers with reusable bags, a section for organic products, and motion sensor lighting in its office and storeroom.
• Green makes dollar sense (Business Times via Infocomm123) - Infocomm vendors are promoting Green IT, which refers to the application of technology and practices that cut unnecessary energy use. Some practices include the virtualisation of servers and using less power-consuming computers.
• More individuals, firms doing their part to save water (Channel NewsAsia) - More individuals and organisations are doing their part to save water, as the PUB saw a 140% increase in its “Friends of Water” membership last year.
• Trials on new system of buying electricity start later this year (Channel NewsAsia) - The Electricity Vending System will go on trial in Nov this year and will give households the freedom to choose different electricity packages from suppliers. Home owners can buy electricity from vending machines and via the Internet and mobile phones. This system would help consumers to be more aware of how much electricity they use and save energy.

Global News

• U.N. chief warns against waiting for climate deal (Reuters) - United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that countries should aim for a meaningful breakthrough on negotiations for the successor deal to the Kyoto Protocol in Poland this December, and not wait till the Copenhagen summit in end 2009.
• First Draft of Sustainable Biofuels Standard Released (ClimateBiz) - The Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels has released the first draft of a biofuels global standard, which will guide worldwide biofuel production and processing.

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