Serbia,China sign agreement to upgrade thermal plant

China National Offshore Oil Corp will pay A$50 million （US$49 million） for a 50-percent interest in Exoma Energy Ltd＇s coal seam gas blocks in Australia.     

China to meet year-end goat of cutting energy intensity by 20%,NURC Says

A senior official of China＇s National Energy Administration （NEA） encouraged Chinese firms to invest in the renewable energy market of the United States to boost their competitiveness in the international market.     

Don’t Be Lulled By the Market Calm

If you've been checking your portfolio regularly,you may have noticed something peculiar:Week after week, the market has been moving up without major setbacks.The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index soared 30 percent from July 2 to Feb.15,falling 1 percent or more on only 13 occasions during that time.Based on one measure of volatility, stocks haven't risen this much amid price swings this narrow since 1971.     

The Hidden Burden of Ultra-Low Interest Rates

The Federal Reserve, which cut its target for the federal funds rate to a zero-to-0.25 percent range on Dec. 16, 2008, said last month that rates would remain "exceptionally low" at least through late 2014. While the unprecedented period of near-zero rates is meant to aid an ailing economy, it poses challenges for banks, insurers, pension funds, and savers.The hope is that by making mortgages and other loans cheaper, ultra-low rates eventually may revive economic growth. For now they’re squeezing profits at banks and disrupting investment strategies at insurance companies and pension funds. They’ve reduced payouts on savings accounts and bonds, and may lead to higher bank fees and insurance premiums. For banks, l     

China＇s first million-kW hvdro-power units expect-ed by 2020： expert

China is reviewing three national standards for electric vehicle power batteries, a Chinese researcher said on August 25 at a forum in Beijing.     

Chlna＇s petrochemical output value hits RMB 5.9 trln in Jan-Nov

China saw the total output value of the petrochemical industry decline 3% year on year in the first 11 months of this year to RMB 5.94 trillion, said Feng Shiliang, deputy secretary-general of the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Association.     

How We Invest

In this chapter from their new book, Climate of Hope: How Cities, Businesses, and Citizens Can Save the Planet, the founder of Bloomberg LP and former mayor of New York City collaborates with the former executive director of the Sierra Club in showing how the pursuit of profit by companies and their investors is playing an important role in the battle against global warming. Climate change is shown as posing a series of discrete, manageable challenges—such as accelerating the transition from fossil fuels to clean energy—that have spurred a search for solutions that promise to make our society healthier and stronger. National governments, the authors argue, are not the best places to create or carry out these solutions. Rather, it is the mayors, CEOs, entrepreneurs, activists, concerned citizens, and other local actors who have the strongest incentives as well as the power and means to win the battle against climate change—and in ways that have already begun to generate economic growth and improve public health. State governors and mayors of cities around the U.S., in red and blue states alike, have been responsible for much of this progress. Cities and states have negotiated contracts with local utilities to provide greater amounts of clean energy, and used combinations of public and private capital to fund rapid transit, waste‐water treatment, and other infrastructure programs. But an equally important if not larger role is now being played by business. Companies large and small, with the backing of a growing number of environmentally conscious but resolutely profit‐seeking investors, are finding ways to reduce waste and strengthen worker protection and morale throughout supply chains that are providing increasingly climatefriendly products and services. The authors' bottom line, then, is that preventing climate change will require more than goodwill and government regulation. It will take the profit motive, a force that that many environmentalists have long viewed with suspicion. While acknowledging the past efforts of socially responsible investment funds that have shown a willingness to sacrifice returns, the authors conclude that the enlightened self‐interest of value‐seeking investors may well prove more effective than the “beneficence” of social investors and philanthropists in producing investments of sufficient scale and practical efficacy to meet the challenges of global warming.