(January 24, 2007) A Declaration on Debt drafted by participants at this year’s World Social Forum in Nairobi, Kenya, last month calls on governments and lenders in the global North to examine loans they have extended to countries in the South and take responsibility for illegitimate debts.
Chinese 1st quarter GDP up 7.6 per cent
China’s finance minister warns that the government cannot go on indefinitely shelling out for big-ticket public works projects such as the Three Gorges dam.
Time to cancel Kenya’s crippling debts
(January 23, 2006) That Kenya’s external debt needs to be cancelled is long overdue. As noted recently by Cabinet ministers and Prof Jeffery Sachs of the United Nations, this debt is crippling the country to the point that Kenya’s ability to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is not just difficult, but it is virtually impossible.
Chinese Power Giant to Sell Carbon Dioxide to Spain under CDM Contract
(January 23, 2006) The Chinese electric utility Huaneng and the Spanish National Power Corporation Endesa have unveiled a pioneering initiative for purchasing emissions credits generated under the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), according to the 21st Century Business Herald. The deal, announced January 19 in Beijing, is the first in China’s power sector to be put into implementation. This initiative will generate roughly 3 billion RMB (US $375 million) for Huaneng and benefit the utility’s fledgling wind power projects.
Time to call for debt relief one year after the tsunami
(January 23, 2006) Much of the Indonesia’s debt could actually be classified as odious or illegitimate. The majority of the country’s debt was accumulated during Soeharto’s 32-year regime.
Three Gorges dam project enters new phase
Xinhua reports on the 555 explosions that brought down the kilometre-long cofferdam in 18 seconds.
Ecology institute plan for Shanghai
(January 19, 2006) Shanghai’s Tongji University and the United Nations are to jointly run an ecology and sustainable development institute, scheduled to open in October. Among other projects, it will monitor the environmental impact of the Three Gorges dam.
China’s Three Gorges dam developer switches to coal
(January 18, 2006) Earlier this year, China Yangtze Power Company, the listed arm of state-owned Three Gorges Project Development Corporation, announced plans to buy a string of coal-fired plants to reduce the company’s exposure to hydro risk.
“PUC broke the law,” Senator Ambrose Tillett
(January 18, 2006) “PUC colluded with BEL to gouge customers . . . it gave BEL a blank check.”
Dam holds back rumours
Quality-control tests at the Three Gorges dam site have smashed rumours that poor construction and management loopholes have resulted in cracks, China Daily says.
World Bank says benefits of Chinese hydro dam ‘impossible to quantify’
(January 18, 2006) The World Bank has given China’s second-largest hydro project a satisfactory rating on the resettlement of 46,000 people, despite having no data to assess whether anyone is better or worse off.
Groups protest Blair’s decision to drop top fraud probe
(January 17, 2007) Earlier this week, 140 international charities, churches and NGOs sent a written petition to British Prime Minister Tony Blair demanding that he reopen a corruption probe into a controversial arms deal with Saudi Arabia.
Sacking of writer signals clampdown in Hong Kong
(January 16, 2006) Jasper Becker and his defenders say the former South China Morning Post reporter was the victim of a new climate of self-censorship as Beijing imposes the ‘correct attitude’ on the Hong Kong media.
Foreign capital key to China power drive
(January 16, 2006) Overseas power firms have long been wary of moving into China, largely due to a murky regulatory climate and inconsistent tariff scheme. But Beijing’s blueprint for market-oriented reform has aroused foreign investor interest, Reuters reports.
Chinese dam benefits ‘impossible to quantify’: World Bank
(January 16, 2006) The World Bank has given Ertan, China’s second-largest hydro project, a satisfactory rating on the resettlement of 46,000 people, despite having no data to assess whether anyone is better or worse off.
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