China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said this week the country will roll out a pilot scheme for green power trading between corporate consumers and renewable energy generators.

The program is being carried out by the Beijing Power Exchange Center and the Guangzhou Power Exchange Center.

Under the pilot scheme, users who have demands for green power will directly trade with wind power and photovoltaic power generation enterprises.

According to Shi Lianjun, general manager of the Beijing Power Exchange Centre, 222 enterprises have applied to participate in the pilot program.

"Some regions have been hoping for an overall design from the national level to pinpoint the basic standard and regulations for the trading," said the NDRC, adding that there are feasible technologies which can guarantee the sound operation of the trading market.

"New technologies such as blockchain can help to thoroughly record information on green power production, transactions, consumption and other procedures," the commission said.

Blockchain-based technologies could help realize automatic, accurate, and highly efficient green power transactions, as well as the approval and issuing of certificates for green power consumption, said Wang Dong, head of State Grid Blockchain Technology (Beijing). He added that “Aside from greatly optimizing trading procedures, reducing costs and enhancing efficiency, these technologies could effectively rule out risks of errors.”

The gas export proceeds of Russian energy giant Gazprom between January and July grew 1.8 times compared with the same period of the previous year and amounted to over $23 billion, according to Russia's Federal Customs Service.

Statistics showed that the physical volume of gas exports during the reported period reached 123.8 billion cubic meters, marking a growth of almost 15%.

In July, Gazprom exported $3.48 billion-worth of natural gas, a decrease of 2.1% on the previous month.

According to data tracked by the customs service, the average export price of Russian gas in July rose to $245.12 per 1,000 cubic meters, compared to $226.5 in June and $199.7 in May.

Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia has recorded 2,771 new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, bringing the national tally to 255,419, said the country's health ministry on Sunday.

The ministry said that 7,846 samples were tested across the country in the past day, and 1,478 of the latest confirmed cases were detected in the capital Ulan Bator, the country's hardest-hit area during the pandemic.

Meanwhile, the viral disease has so far claimed 1,036 lives after 15 more patients aged over 40 died in the past day.

The Asian country launched its national vaccination campaign in late February, with the aim of vaccinating at least 60 percent of its population of around 3.4 million.

So far, 65 percent of the country's total population have received two jabs. Enditem

At least seven beavers in Mongolia have tested positive for Covid-19, the country's National Centre for Zoonotic Diseases (NCZD) said.

"Workers of the Beaver Breeding Centre at the Environmental Department of the capital Ulan Bator tested positive for the Covid-19 in August. After that, the Delta variant were detected in seven beavers," Nyamdorj Tsogbadrakh, director of the NCZD, told local media on Saturday.

It is the first time that Covid-19 has been detected in animals in Mongolia, Xinhua news agency quoted Tsogbadrakh as saying.

The infected beavers showed symptoms of cough, runny nose, sticky eyes and others, he said, adding that the animals have already recovered from the disease.

The disease has spread to the capital city and all 21 provinces of the country, and the Delta variant, in particular, has been detected in the capital and 20 provinces.

Mongolia, with a population of around 3.4 million, has registered a total of 252,648 Covid-19 cases, with 1,021 deaths. IANS

A U.S. House of Representatives committee has voted to include language in a wider budget reconciliation package that would block Rio Tinto Ltd from building its Resolution copper mine in Arizona.

The San Carlos Apache tribe and other Native Americans say the mine would destroy sacred land where they hold religious ceremonies. Elected officials in nearby Superior, Arizona, say the mine is crucial for the region’s economy.

The House Natural Resources Committee late on Thursday folded the Save Oak Flat Act into the $3.5 trillion reconciliation spending measure. The full House could reverse the move and the legislation faces an uncertain fate in the U.S. Senate.

IF APPROVED, THE BILL WOULD REVERSE A 2014 DECISION BY FORMER PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA AND CONGRESS THAT SET IN MOTION A COMPLEX PROCESS TO GIVE RIO FEDERALLY-OWNED ARIZONA LAND

If approved, the bill would reverse a 2014 decision by former President Barack Obama and Congress that set in motion a complex process to give Rio federally-owned Arizona land that contains more than 40 billion pounds of copper in exchange for acreage that Rio owns nearby.

Former President Donald Trump gave the land swap final approval before leaving office in January, but successor Joe Biden reversed that decision, leaving the project in limbo.

The final reconciliation budget is expected to include funding for solar, wind and other renewable energy projects that require immense volumes of copper. Electric vehicles use twice as much copper as those with internal combustion engines. The Resolution mine could fill about 25% of the demand for U.S. copper.

Superior Mayor Mila Besich, a Democrat, said the project seems increasingly stuck in “bureaucratic purgatory.”

“This move seems contradictory to what the Biden administration is trying to do to address climate change,” said Besich. “I hope the full House does not allow that language to stay in the final bill.”

Rio said it would continue consultation with local communities and tribes. Rio Chief Executive Jakob Stausholm plans to visit Arizona later this year.

Representatives for the San Carlos Apache and BHP Group Ltd, which is a minority investor in the project, could not immediately be reached for comment.

(By Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)

Harvard University has announced it will no longer invest in fossil fuels and will instead use its $42 billion endowment to support the world’s transition to green energy, drawing praise from stakeholders that had long pressed the educational institution to exit such holdings.

President Lawrence Bacow, who for years publicly opposed divesting, said in a letter that the university’s endowment had no direct investments in fossil fuel exploration or development companies as of June and will not invest in them in the future.

SIGN UP FOR THE ENERGY DIGEST

The university does have indirect investments in the fossil fuel industry but, according to Bacow, they are “in runoff mode.” These investments, made through private equity funds, make up less than 2% of the endowment, he said.

HARVARD HAD ANNOUNCED LAST YEAR IT WOULD WORK WITH ITS INVESTMENT MANAGERS TO REACH “NET ZERO” GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS BY 2050, BUT THAT WASN’T FAST ENOUGH FOR ITS STUDENTS

The move marks a sharp twist in the university’s position on the matter in the last ten years, which pitted student activists against administrators and dominated campus politics.

In a September 2019 letter published in Harvard Magazine, Bacow wrote that he believed working with fossil fuel companies was a “sounder and more effective approach” to fossil fuels for Harvard to take.

“We may differ on means,” Bacow told students in the letter. “[But we] share the belief that action is required. We just happen to have an honest difference of opinion over what the appropriate action is.”

The university had announced last year it would begin working with its investment managers to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. That wasn’t fast enough for its students. A group filed in March a complaint with the Massachusetts attorney general to try forcing Harvard to sell its estimated $838 million fossil fuel holdings, The Harvard Crimson reported.

Butterfly effect?

Divest Harvard, one of the activist groups, described the announcement on Twitter as “a massive victory for our community, the climate movement, and the world — and a strike against the power of the fossil fuel industry.”

The Ivy League college, the richest in the US, will be following in the footsteps of other institutions, such as the University of California and the UK’s Cambridge University, which have committed to divesting their endowments from the fossil fuel industry.

The decision is expected to motivate other educational institutions to withdraw their support of businesses contributing to man-made climate change.

The university will also be joining a growing group of big institutional investors and governments that are responding to consumer pressure to accelerate de-carbonization efforts.

The United Nation’s authoritative Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released last month a report deemed as “code red for humanity.”

The review of a 2013 report predicts that temperatures on Earth will rise by about 1.5 degrees Celsius in two decades and warns that a near-2m rise in sea levels by the end of this century “cannot be ruled out.”

Mongolia confirmed 3,805 new daily coronavirus cases, the country's Ministry of Health said on Sept 9.

1,381 cases were confirmed in Ulaanbaatar, 2,299 cases were detected in the regions.

The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases nationwide has increased to 247,399.

10 people died in a day.

The total number of deaths due to COVID-19 in Mongolia has increased to 992.

Despite significant challenges facing Mongolia's economic and financial markets amid the COVID-19 pandemic over the past two years, market capitalization, trading volumes, and index have all recently reached historically high levels.

Market capitalization reached MNT 4.0 trillion last month, and the capitalization of one of the largest national companies reached MNT 1.0 trillion. Moreover, on September 8, 2021, the market capitalization of the Mongolian Stock Exchange JSC reached its highest ever level - in the 30-year history of the capital market in the country - of MNT 5.0 trillion.

As a result of the support being provided to the capital market from the Mongolian Parliament and the Government, the Financial Regulatory Commission has accomplished the following in cooperation with professional market organizations, securities issuers and investors:

developing the capital market,

increasing the range of products and services, and

converting securities between domestic and foreign exchanges.

Today, market capitalization has reached a record high as a result of major policy measures, used to build a system of professional investors. It is worth noting that this increase was also due to factors such as the recovery of public and corporate confidence in the capital market, increased participation in trading, and an increase in the total value of listed companies.

Interest rates will be gradually reduced in the future under the Strategy to Reduce Loan Interest Rates, and the recent amendments to the Banking Law of Mongolia. Next year, systemically important banks will become listed, and their shares will be traded to the public through trading organizations. This will contribute to increasing market capitalization, improving the quality and availability of products and services, and improving the comprehensive long-term situation of the financing system.

As part of the ‘MNT 10 trillion Comprehensive Plan for Health Protection and Economic Recovery’, one-year term loans totaling MNT 100 billion will be issued at a 3 percent interest rate for the preparation of up to 20 thousand tons of meat for coming winter and spring. The government will pay 7.65 percent of the total interest amount. The Ministry of Finance has established agreements with the Bank of Mongolia and five commercial banks and 18 companies have been selected to do the winter meat preparation.

At the Cabinet’s meeting on September 8, Minister of Food, Agriculture and Light Industry Z.Mendsaikhan presented a preliminary crop projection. The forecast for the production of grains is 594.1 thousand tons, wheat – 559.2 thousand tons, potato – 198.8 thousand tons, vegetables – 117.0 thousand tons, oil plant – 64.3 thousand tons, and animal feed – 203.3 thousand tons. According to the estimates, 100 percent of wheat and potato demand and 60 percent of the vegetable demand will be met domestically. As of September 8, companies submitted requests to hire 7.3 thousand students and cadets for crop harvesting. The Ministry of Labor and Social Protection, Ministry of Education and Science, Ministry of Defense, and the Ministry of Health are working together to fill the demand. Moreover, Mongolian Youth Federation in collaboration with Youth Labor Center is implementing the Golden Fall sub-project to register students for crop harvesting and match companies to them.