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  Business Times 9 Aug 07
Al Gore charms but investors want more green information
By Matthew Phan

Channel NewsAsia 8 Aug 07
Former US Vice-President Al Gore calls on PM Lee

Yahoo News 7 Aug 07
Gore: Polluters manipulate climate info
By Gillian Wong, Associated Press Writer

PlanetArk 7 Aug 07
China Can Cut Emissions Without Hurting Growth - Gore

Channel NewsAsia 7 Aug 07
People are more environmentally conscious, but not enough: Al Gore

SINGAPORE: Businesses and consumers are becoming more environmentally conscious, but more needs to be done at a faster rate, said former US vice president Al Gore.

Mr Gore, who is in Singapore for a two-day visit, gave a closed door presentation to about 600 people at the Global Brand Forum.

Being part of the solution to the climate crisis is in companies’ interests, he said, because doing so would help boost their reputations in the future. And some local businesses are already heeding his call.

Elim Chew, president and founder of 77th Street, said: "We're working out with less advantaged people, making re-useable bags. They'll sew it, and we'll also get designs from a movement called Eco-Movement. "And we're going to print this bag called ‘reuse me again and again and again’ so that people will understand they have to reuse the bag again and again, and so that we'll be able to save on plastic bags."

Lo Yong Poo, CEO of Goodrich Global, also does his part to contribute to the green movement. Through research and development, its supplier now uses ink that is more environmental friendly to print wallpapers. “(The supplier has) replaced the traditional chemical kind of ink to a more water-based kind of ink to reduce pollution,” he said.

Mr Gore pointed out, however, individuals should also do their part by making simple choices such as installing energy-saving light bulbs and switching off lights when leaving a room.

Singapore is now moving towards compulsory energy labelling, but many believe that items such as air-conditioners and cars should also be given carbon labelling.

Penny Low, MP for Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC, agreed that if the public can calculate how much carbon dioxide are being released into the atmosphere through their activities, "and what that translates to in terms of our carbon footprints, then I think we'll make a more conscientious effort to reduce that carbon footprints."

Mr Gore was given the inaugural Global Brand Forum Brand Icon of the Year award, which recognises individuals for their outstanding achievements in the area of global branding. - CNA/ac

Yahoo News 7 Aug 07
Gore: Polluters manipulate climate info
By Gillian Wong, Associated Press Writer

Research aimed at disputing the scientific consensus on global warming is part of a huge public misinformation campaign funded by some of the world's largest carbon polluters, former Vice President Al Gore said Tuesday.

"There has been an organized campaign, financed to the tune of about $10 million a year from some of the largest carbon polluters, to create the impression that there is disagreement in the scientific community," Gore said at a forum in Singapore.

"In actuality, there is very little disagreement."

Gore likened the campaign to the millions of dollars spent by U.S. tobacco companies years ago on creating the appearance of scientific debate on smoking's harmful effects.

"This is one of the strongest of scientific consensus views in the history of science," Gore said. "We live in a world where what used to be called propaganda now has a major role to play in shaping public opinion."

After the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, made up of the world's top climate scientists, released a report in February that warned that the cause of global warming is "very likely" man-made, "the deniers offered a bounty of $10,000 for each article disputing the consensus that people could crank out and get published somewhere," Gore said.

"They're trying to manipulate opinion and they are taking us for fools," he said.

He said Exxon Mobil Corp., the world's largest publicly traded oil company, is one of the major fuel companies involved in attempting to mislead the public about global warming.

Last year, British and American science advocacy groups accused ExxonMobil of funding groups that undermine the scientific consensus on climate change. The company said the scientists' reports were just attempts to smear Exxon Mobil's name and confuse the debate.

Gore said that with growing awareness of climate change, the world will see an acceleration in efforts to fight the problem, and urged businesses to recognize that reducing carbon emissions is in their long-term interest.

But while Washington should lead by example, he said developing nations also have to play a part.

"Countries like China, just to give an example, which will next year be the largest emitter in the world, can't be excluded just because it's technically a developing country," Gore said. "When you look at the absolute amount of CO2 each year and going forward, China will soon surpass the U.S."

Gore said that as the Asian giant's economy expands, China faces an increased risk from climate change and must leapfrog old, polluting technologies while maintaining growth.

The Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency said in June that China overtook the United States in carbon dioxide emissions by about 7.5 percent in 2006. China was 2 percent below the U.S. in greenhouse gas emissions in 2005, the agency said.

PlanetArk 7 Aug 07
China Can Cut Emissions Without Hurting Growth - Gore

SINGAPORE - China can cut its carbon emissions without jeopardising economic growth if it uses new technologies that do not emit greenhouse gases, former US Vice President Al Gore said on Tuesday.

Gore cited the mobile phone industry as an example of a business that does not need to burn fossil fuels such as oil and coal.

"There are ways to leap-frog the old, dirty technologies," said Gore, who was speaking at the Global Brand Forum in Singapore.

China, like other developing nations, is worried that plans to cut carbon emissions would cripple its economic development. But Gore said the Chinese government needs to be more aggressive in fighting global warming because the country's chronic water shortage is tied to climate change.

"China has a great deal at risk," he said. "The water crisis is very closely related to the climate crisis." Millions of people in China, which is on course to overtake the United States as the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, have no access to clean drinking water.

Chinese scientists said last month that rising temperatures are draining wetlands at the head of the Yangtze and Yellow rivers, China's two longest rivers, choking their flow and reducing water supplies to hundreds of millions of people.

While top Chinese leaders have "expressed themselves forcefully" on global warming, the comments do not "necessarily lead to immediate changes in the region," Gore said.

CALL FOR CARBON TAX

Gore, who became a climate crusader after he left the White House, also urged governments to impose carbon taxes because that would force businesses to think more carefully about their greenshouse gas emissions.

"The single, most effective thing that governments can do to solve this crisis" is to have a CO2 tax, Gore said.

He said that the introduction of the carbon tax in Norway has spurred businesses to develop the world's most advanced technology to bury heat-trapping greenhouse gases underground.

Gore said that he was embarrassed that as vice president, he had only managed to persuade one senator to vote for the Kyoto Treaty. While he feels that the majority of them would vote for it today, he stressed the need for people to have a greater "sense of urgency" about global warming.

Gore, who spearheaded last month's Live Earth concerts worldwide and whose documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" won an Oscar, has not ruled out another bid for the presidency.

"I haven't ruled out the possibility of running again at some point, but I don't expect to do so."

Channel NewsAsia 8 Aug 07
Former US Vice-President Al Gore calls on PM Lee

SINGAPORE: Visiting former US Vice-President Al Gore called on Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at the Istana on Wednesday. Mr Gore, who is now an environmental crusader, is in Singapore for two days as a speaker at the Global Brand Forum.

At the meeting, the two discussed the issue of climate change. They also exchanged views on how the international community can work together to tackle the climate crisis.

Prime Minister Lee informed Mr Gore that climate change will be one of the key items on the agenda of upcoming regional meetings. These include the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting in September and the ASEAN and East Asia Summits in November.

Business Times 9 Aug 07
Al Gore charms but investors want more green information
By Matthew Phan

(SINGAPORE) Former US vice-president Al Gore may have to trot the globe some more.

At a closed-door seminar with the well-known environmentalist yesterday, the clearest message was not so much the critical importance of climate change - though Mr Gore covered that well - but that the theme could be better broadcast.

A snap poll of the audience, consisting of high net worth private and corporate clients of ABN Amro, which organised the session, showed that of about 200 respondents, 71.4 per cent said the greatest hurdle to green investment was lack of information.

Asked if they had enough research material to make informed green investment choices, more than 70 per cent disagreed or strongly disagreed.

Granted, the poll was hardly scientific. Still, the answers corresponded with another finding: 77.1 per cent of respondents said they had not invested in green financial products in the last year, even though about three-quarters would like to allocate at least 5 per cent of their portfolios to the theme.

Newspapers were the main source of information on the environment for over half of the respondents, while over a quarter cited television as their main source. Another 15.7 per cent said financial institutions were their main source of news. The remainder cited friends or books.

At yesterday's session, Mr Gore reiterated the views he expressed in An Inconvenient Truth - that our growing populations and powerful technologies have led to serious global consequences - and then criticised the short-term outlook of politicians and investors.

Long-term investors should find ways to integrate sustainability factors, including the climate crisis, into their analysis of assets' sustainable performance, he said.

Mr Gore also said that though global warming is a problem in which every country has a stake, the developed countries will have to bear a larger burden and should share technology and resources with developing countries, in order to make rapid progress possible.

The 'principle of differentiated obligations' has been taken to the extreme, with China and other developing countries exempt from reducing emissions, he said. It will be difficult to get politicians in developed countries to agree to further provisions unless they are confident that China - which recently overtook the US as the world's largest greenhouse gas emitter in absolute terms - agrees to cap its own pollution, said Mr Gore.

Asked for his views on nuclear energy, Mr Gore said he was 'not an automatic opponent' but does not expect it to play a hugely increased role. Nuclear plants are expensive and take a long time to build.

Given the uncertainty of energy demand projection, a utility looking to allocate resources is 'likely to prefer smaller bets that mature more quickly, rather than bet the farm on a big increment that will not come onstream for a decade and has major risks attached', he said.

In closing his speech, Mr Gore flashed the wit that characterises the man who 'used to be next President of the United States': the world has everything it needs to address climate change, he said, 'with the exception of the will to act - a renewable resource'.
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