(Français) l’économie circulaire: l’énigme chinoise?
12:40 PM
2nd Annual European Union Film Festival in China
09:04 AM
PRESS CONFERENCE
2nd Annual European Union Film Festival in China
Date: Tuesday November 3, 2009 – 10:30am
Address: Stellar Yingdu Multiplex, N.75 xiaxi shuncheng Rd, Chengdu
Speakers: William Fingleton, Head of Press & Information Section of the EU Delegation & Christine Pernin, director of the EU Film Festival
Following the great success of the first Annual EU Film Festival in China, held in Beijing in December 2008, we are pleased to announce that the 2nd Annual EU Film Festival in China will take place from November 5th to December 4th, 2009. This year the film festival is expanding and will take place in two cities: Beijing and Chengdu, for the first time. The screenings will take place in Chengdu at the Stellar Yingdu Cinema from November 19th to December 4th,2009.
The film festival, which is financed by the Delegation of the European Commission to China and supported by the Swedish Presidency, invites all 27 EU Member States to showcase one recent, popular and successful film per country. Such a diverse program will enable the Chinese general public to discover the new faces of European cinema.
Each film will be screened in its original language with Chinese and English subtitles
UK: Foreign Secretary David Miliband accuses public of climate change apathy
01:17 PM
The Foreign Secretary accused the public yesterday of lacking a sense of urgency in the face of the potentially devastating consequences of climate change.
David Miliband said that people had grown apathetic about the issue when they needed to be galvanised into action before the Copenhagen climate change summit in December.
“For a lot of people the penny hasn’t dropped that this climate change challenge is real and is happening now,” he said. “There isn’t yet that feeling of urgency and drive and animation about the Copenhagen conference.”
Mr Miliband and his brother, Ed Miliband, the Climate Change Secretary, were opening an exhibition at the Science Museum in South Kensington designed to illustrate the potential impact of world temperatures increasing by 4C. Current models predict that this could happen by 2060 if no action is taken.
More: The Times
President Obama won’t talk climate change in Copenhagen
01:07 PM
President Obama will almost certainly not travel to the Copenhagen climate change summit in December and may instead use his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech to set out US environmental goals, The Times has learnt.
With healthcare reform clogging his domestic agenda and no prospect of a comprehensive climate treaty in Copenhagen, Mr Obama may disappoint campaigners and foreign leaders, including Gordon Brown and Ed Miliband, who have urged him to attend to boost the hopes of a breakthrough.
The White House would not comment on Mr Obama’s travel plans yesterday, but administration officials have said privately that “Oslo is plenty close” — a reference to the Nobel ceremony that falls on December 10, two days into the Copenhagen meeting.
The White House confirmed that the President would be in Oslo to accept the prize, but a source close to the Administration said it was “hard to see the benefit” of his going to Copenhagen if there was no comprehensive deal for him to close or sign. Another expert, who did not want to be named, said he would be “really, really shocked” if Mr Obama went to Copenhagen, adding that European hopes about the power of his Administration to transform the climate change debate in a matter of months bore little relation to reality. The comprehensive climate change treaty that for years has been the goal of the Copenhagen conference was now an “unrealistic” prospect, Yvo de Boer, the UN official guiding the process, said last week.
Chinese and Indian resistance to mandatory carbon emission limits has so far proved an insurmountable obstacle to crafting a successor to the Kyoto Protocol that is acceptable to the US. America has also slowed the process through its reluctance to accept climate change science or the carbon cap-and-trade mechanism to combat global warming.
More information: The Times
GDF SUEZ, Chongqing Municipal partnerfor energy and environmental efficiency development
12:34 PM
Gérard MESTRALLET, Chairman and CEO of GDF SUEZ, has signed an agreement with Chongqing Energy Investment Group for the establishment of a 40/60 joint venture dedicated to energy and environmental efficiency in Chongqing, the largest Municipality in the world (30 million inhabitants) located in Western China. For a period of 25 years, the company shall design, build and operate district cooling and heating schemes in Chongqing urban area, and develop solutions to provide dedicated industrial parks and industries with relevant aggregated energy and environmental efficiency services. Priority shall be given to cooling schemes in the first period.
The establishment of this joint venture launches GDF SUEZ energy services business in Chongqing and illustrates the Chinese Government’s commitment to energy and environmental efficiency objectives of the 11th five year plan.
Gérard MESTRALLET signed this Agreement while attending, September 26th and 27th, 4th International Economic Advisory Council of the Mayor of Chongqing. Gérard MESTRALLET was appointed Chairman of Chongqing Mayor’s Council in September 2006 and chaired the Council the first two years. He is now the Honorary Chairman of the Council which is composed of some 30 international business executives which meet every year to support the industrial development of the Municipality.
GDF SUEZ, through its Energy Services business line, operates over 110 district heating and cooling schemes. The Energy Services business line operates, in particular, the Paris district cooling scheme, the first and biggest in the world with 70 km of network. Last year, GDF SUEZ Energy Services was designated to build and operate for 40 years the district cooling and heating scheme of the London 2012 Olympic Park and Stratford City new development area. New district cooling schemes are presently under development in the Middle East and Asia.
Chongqing Energy Investment Group (CQEIG) is the energy investment tool of Chongqing Municipality integrated company: investment, production, operation and usages of energy (electricity, coal, gas). Installed power production capacity:
5.67 million kilowatts; annual natural gas supply: 1.7 billion cubic meters. 60,000 employees.
GDF SUEZ Energy Services offers its customers in industry, services, and infrastructures custom-made solutions, whether in the fields of engineering, installations or energy services. GDF SUEZ Energy Services is a key solution provider in energy and environmental efficiency, especially in district cooling and heating as well as in outsourcing for industrial parks. GDF SUEZ Energy Services employs 80,000 people in more than 30 countries and achieved revenues of € 14 billion in 2008.
The Group first forged ties with the Chongqing metropolitan area in 2002, when it signed through SUEZ Environment a concession contract with the city. It is the first large-scale public-private partnership and the first actual water concession contract based on a long-term partnership (50 years). The area covered by the concession (population of 1,000,000) is located in the northern part of the city. It also includes rapidly-growing industrial areas, such as the area where the international airport is located.
In addition, through its 50/50 joint venture, Chongqing Sino French Tangjiatuo, it manages operations and maintenance for the treatment plant in the same north Chongqing neighbourhood. This is the first domestic wastewater sanitation contract for the Group. The plant has a capacity of 300,000 m3/day, which will be increased to 400,000 m3/day.
Finally, in February 2009, SUEZ ENVIRONNEMENT, won a new drinking water distribution concession for the Yuelai district. The contract covers the construction and operation of a drinking water treatment plant with a capacity of 600,000 m3 per day, as well as management of water distribution services for Yuelai, which will eventually serve 1.2 million people.
In 2008, SUEZ ENVIRONNEMENT total revenues in China were of 750 million euros.
SUEZ ENVIRONNEMENT and its historic partner New World Services have, together, recently acquired 15 percent of Chongqing Water Group’s (CWG), the leading company in water and sanitation services of the Province of Chongqing, for approximately 140 million euros (RMB 1.5 billion). This strategic investment is a major step forward for the growth of SUEZ ENVIRONNEMENT’s activities in China. It proves the level of SUEZ ENVIRONNEMENT’s commitment to the Chongqing authorities and its confidence in the future in terms of strengthening relationships with Chongqing’s local authorities and developing services for its population and industries.
From: GDF SUEZ
ABYSSES exhibition at the HAVRE!
05:09 AM
Exposition Abysses
The new business and leisure center Docks Vauban will host the most spectacular sea bed exhibition until February 26th 2010. This exhibition was created in collaboration with researchers from around the world.
Created in Paris at the National Museum of Natural History in 2007, the exhibition ABYSSES gathers for the first time in history pictures, videos and specimens of the abyssal zone. Spectacular and exciting, the exhibition had a strong success in Paris before starting an international tour. After Hong Kong, Luanda, Taipei and Taichung, and soon Shangai, the exhibition ABYSSES will stop at the HAVRE for four and a half months.
The visitors will admire 20 years of scuba diving in the depths of the sea: steady and animated pictures of a priceless value, gathered because of the passion and the pugnacity of an outstanding woman who worked four years without respite with research institutes from around the world and specimens brought back from the sea depths…
Educational, aesthetic and at the same time scientific, the exhibition ABYSSES offers to visitors the discovery of an unknown universe trough a sequential immersion of the great sea depths. With an ambiance soundtrack created for the occasion, the exhibition gathers unreleased pictures, movies of an undeniable beauty and unique and fascinating species from around the planet.
During the Exposition Universelle in April 2010, the exhibition ABYSSES will be presented in Shanghai at the prestigious Museum of Science and Technologies. Then it will continue its path in China and also in the cities of Beijing and Canton.
Exhibition ABYSSES
Docks Vauban – Until February 26th 2010 (From 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day except Tuesdays)
Fare: 5 Euros full-fare, 3 Euros reduced-fare