24/09/2014 Asia Business Report

month ago in West London. Now on BBC News, all the latest

business news live from Singapore. The business of battling climate

change. The UN Summit in New York sees China promising to cut its

emissions. Weaker demand for coal are hitting

the manufacturers hard. `` mining giant BHP. Thank you for joining us

for Asia Business Report with me, Rico Hizon.

At the end of a special summit on climate change in New York, the UN

Secretary General said that never before

together for the business of reducing carbon emissions and said

the summit had shown the international community could rise

to the challenge. Speaking on the sidelines, the vice premier of China

agreed with him and with Barack Obama that the largest emmitters

producing countries have a response ability to lead. TRANSLATION: We

will announce actions after 2020 as soon as we can reduce carbon

intensity and increase the share of nonfossil fuels, raise our forests

stock and try to limit CO2 emissions as soon as possible. Next year, we

will become the first Asian country to implement a nationwide emissions

trading scheme. We will also let frugal consumers save electricity

and send it back to the grid. Indonesia pledges to reduce our

greenhouse gas emissions by 20% by 2020. The target will go up to 41%

with international support. We heard the pledges they are from

China, South Korea and Indonesia. China making its first contributions

and South Korea promising to be the first country in Asia to introduce

an emissions trading scheme. Early, I spoke with an economist to ask for

his thoughts on some of these targets. It is a big target and we

must have them but for the whole point about climate change. It is

like boiling a frog in water. You slowly start heating up the water,

it is not until the frog finds it intolerable to stay in the water and

jumps out that people actually do anything. It is significant that

these leaders are doing something now but unfortunately, they will all

have bigger issues to worry about stop in the case of China, they will

try to ensure that emissions peak at a certain time as early as possible

but they will have big issues as well and climate change should be

something they are thinking about the budget isn't really paramount.

This comes as the Chinese economy is slowing down. Going forward, is

reducing carbon emissions good economics for the Chinese? That is

the crucial point and that is what I mean when I say they have other

issues to worry about. China need to ensure that economic growth carries

on at 7.5% this year and next year and if it doesn't, what will they

do? Climate change will get put on the back burner for a while. Many of

these leaders like to speak from both sides of their mouth at the

same time and which one they speak out of is determined by the economy.

They have to say the right things on a global stage. What about South

Korea introducing emmissions trading? That is a good example of

them coming up with a scheme. No`one knows whether it will in South Korea

as it hasn't worked elsewhere in the world. South Korea thinks it will be

able to do something. Unfortunately, these leaders at these forums have

to say something. They have to be seen to do something or else what is

the point of turning up? They got a good soundbite and they will have

delivered their homework. You don't sound very hopeful about these

reductions in carbon emissions. Moving to other news. Barclays has

been fined a record $62 million by a UK regulator for failing to keep its

clients' assets separate from its own. The bank said it did not profit

from the issue and no customers lost out. This comes three years after

the lending giant paid out $1.8 million for a similar problem.

Prosecutors in South Korea are investigating the owners of Tesco,

HomePlus, after allegations that private information of customers was

sold to insurance companies. Tesco said it was cooperating with the

probe. In a separate case, they are also under fire in the UK after

overstating their half your profit guidance. Starred Up is buying out

its Japanese partner in a deal worth more than $900 million. They will

buy the 60.5% stake in the Japanese unit it doesn't own in hopes to

complete the buyout by the end of the year. For more news from around

the region, log on to the BBC website and click on the business

index. Weak demand for coal from China is

impacting the world's largest mining company. It has meant lower prices

for the commodity . BHP will cut 700 jobs in a coalmining venture with

Mitsubishi. The losses amount to about 7% of the joint`venture's

workforce. Earlier, I spoke with a commodity analyst and asked if this

was a drastic move I'd BHP. This is quite a drastic move. If you look at

what BHP has done in two years, it has removed cost from its

operations. It has done so successfully. It has done that

without looking at its workforce. It did take a 160 jobs from its coal

operations and this is the first significant move we have seen for

them to reduce their workforce in that sector. Could we see more steep

layoffs going forward for BHP? We certainly think that they will look

continually at their cost base and we could see perhaps that there

might be other job releases in future. Probably not so much in coal

but in other operations. That is something we are watching closely.

David Mannix, commodity analyst. 100 million Chinese are expecting to

move to cities by 2020 and that puts pressure on the government to build

economically sustainable cities. Six years ago, China teamed up with

Singapore to build what is tipped to be the largest eco` city ever.

Wasteland has been turned into apartment blocks. Our correspondent

went to one such city and Tianjin. As you drive across the bridge into

the city, there is a definite sense of entering a different place. It is

not so much the broad boulevards and tree`lined sidewalks, or the

reminders that 20% of the city's power will one day come from

renewable energy. What is noticeable is what is missing. The overwhelming

question as you walk around this city in the afternoon heat is, where

is everybody? The developers say they are coming and there are 12,000

residents already here. Just two years ago there were virtually none.

But that is a fraction of the 350,000 the city will eventually

support. In the local market, there is none of the usual bustle of food

shopping. And at the community centre, there is no lineup to play.

But for locals like this Madame Yuang and her friends, the

environment is a big attraction. TRANSLATION: I used to live in a

city and the air quality was not great. Here it is great.

In a country notorious for polluted cities, this project is a commitment

by China to build a sustainable urban centre. The sheer scale of the

place makes it hard to replicate. was planned to be highly workable...

This man is in charge of everything from water quality to waste

disposal. One of the biggest challenges is balancing everything.

Do we go for the highest environmental targets or what the

market can support? Only building what you can sell at the moment?

That's right. 60 `70% of the homes here are sold. On the Commercial

Street, this woman has sold wine for the last two years and says more

people are moving in and it gets busier every year. The eco city s

trying to attract new residents just as China's property sector slows

down but the hope is that the promise of cleaner and Greener acts

as a buffer against the headwinds. `` greener.

Before we go, here is a look at the markets. Asian stocks are in

negative territory. Wall Street declined overnight after US equities

retreated as investors digested signs of slowing global growth.

retreated as investors digested signs of The Nikkei is down by 24

points. The Hang Seng, 12 points and Sydney plus the benchmark index

given back 44 points. Those are the Asian markets. Thank you for

investing the time with us. I'm Mike Embley. The top stories

this hour. The US government has said Tuesday's

airstrikes were successful, and were the beginning of a sustained

campaign against the group. China is attempting to tackle

climate