02/06/2017 Asia Business Report

President Trump pulls out of the parrot climate agreement, his

supporters may be happy but how will it impact Asia? -- Harris climate

agreement. Skype gets a makeover, we will show you the new features and

why it is competing with Snapchat. Welcome to this Friday edition of

Asia Business Report. President Donald Trump has withdrawn from the

Paris climate treaty. The decision means the US is only one of three

countries beside Syria and Nicaragua to oppose the global effort to

tackle climate change. But he says he is open to re-negotiating the

deal. In order to for furl my solemn duty to protect America and its

citizens, the United States will withdraw from the Paris climate

accord. But, begin negotiations to re-enter either the Paris Accord,

or, in entirely new transaction. In terms that are fed to the US, its

businesses, workers, people, taxpayers. So, we are getting out,

but we will start to negotiate and see if we can make a deal that is

fair. If we can, that is great. If we can't, that is fine. Past US

presidents, including Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, as well as many

American allies expressed disappointment. Some bosses took

exception to the decision, including the head of Tesla and on musk and

the Disney chief executive Bob Eiger, they have both quit President

Trump's councils. It is there to say that corporate America certainly

does not share the President's view which was a dark and pessimistic

vision of the economy, had America stuck with the deal. He even had

major oil companies standing out in favour of the Paris Accord, names

like Exxon Mobil, Chevron, BP, Shell, all saying they favour the

deal. We have had a lot of reaction on Twitter, the boss of GM, seen as

a bellwether as he is a huge conglomerate. He said he was

disappointed with the decision today on the Paris Agreement, climate

change is real and industry needs to agree. Damning words from him. We

heard from Amazon, putting a statement on Twitter saying that

they believe for a bust clean energy and climate policies can support

American competitiveness, innovation and job growth. It is worth pointing

out there are some companies who have come out in favour of what the

president announced today. Unsurprisingly, many in the energy

sector, especially the coal industry, Murray energy spoke of how

good this would be, and Peabody energy, the leading coal company,

saying it would be a good deal for electricity security. Thank you.

Wall Street closed higher following his plan to withdraw from the Paris

climate agreement. Several business executives disagreed. President

Trump said it would be good for the US economy and it seems that

investors agree. The Dow and the Nasdaq are at record highs, a lot of

this had to do with the fact that we had good economic numbers from the

US Asian markets, just opening and taking the keys from the US.

Australia is making a lot of gains. World leaders that we heard from

earlier, as well as American allies, they all expressed disappointment as

I said earlier. I spoke to Peter Godfrey from the energy Institute in

Singapore and asked who would pick up the slack now that the USA has

turned its back on climate change? The EU and China will continue to

push the policy of change. It isn't only related to climate change, the

focus of today. Very much also on the business of moving and

transitioning to a lower carbon economy and to a certain extent to

move from a centralised energy system to a more distributed energy

system, which renewables begin to start acting. It isn't only about

climate change but energy-efficient seat and how we move to a green and

clean environment. Obviously, Asia will have to start making its own

mind as to where its alliances are. Energy efficiency involves

investment, so how will it affect renewable firms around the world who

had invested ahead of time, as they have braced for this? In Asia, we

can split into three fundamental markets. China, it India, and the

Asiata and region well we are now. Each of the regions have different

issues when it comes to energy. In China, rapid urbanisation caused

pollution and they will make decisions based on reducing their

pollution as much as they can. India has different problems, energy

intensity is much lower right now and it is an underdeveloped

infrastructure so they will need to make decisions about what new

technologies are applicable to their area. Asiata is a mixed bag as we

have into an easier down the road with a lot of coal. They will be

encouraged perhaps to be less accelerated in terms of moving

towards those new technologies. That is the big worry, the decision that

the US could cause a ripple of that? Correct, that is exactly where the

US played a responsible role in that the whole idea of the climate change

court was basically for the rich countries in some way to support

developing countries in moving towards a cleaner and greener

future. Peter Godfrey there. We heard from the former presidential

contender Hillary Clinton who said that turning back on that climate

treaty is a historic mistake. China and the EU are seeking to save the

climate agreement. The Chinese Premier League Chang is due to meet

with EU officials in Brussels later. Developing more green technology and

helping to raise $100 billion per year by 2020, helping poorer

countries cut their emissions. In other business news, AirBnB

appointed a dedicated boss for China as it tries to push into the

mainland. The appointment of the local head has been a top priority

for the home sharing giant as they face stiff competition from others

who dominate the market. Facebook has rejected a call by shareholders

to reduce the circulation of fake news. They asked to produce a

report. The Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg says it was not necessary

as the giant was making it more difficult for fake news spine is to

make money from ads. Microsoft is the latest company to take a bite

out of Snapchat, adding billions of dollars this year, despite losses,

Microsoft has copied some features and built them into the new version

of Skype. The company is rolling out features globally in the coming

months. Chris Fox has more. Skype has been given a Snapchat style

makeover. Microsoft said that the new version of the app has been

rebuilt and there are familiar features so that I can now record a

video of myself... Then add some stickers. And, posted onto a daily

highlights reel. We have seen similar features on other messaging

apps, including WhatsApp, Facebook messenger and Instagram. Classic

video calling has been given a makeover, share photos within a call

without having to leave your conversation, and you can have

colourful reactions. I Skype to the vice president of Skype to ask why

people would want Snapchat style features in this app... We look at

giving our users the tools that they need. People tell us that they use

Skype to stay in touch with families. They video call once or

twice a week. Then, they felt that they had to go to other applications

to share photos or a message. What use is asked was to give us the

tools inside of Skype. That is what we have done. You used to be the

place to go to use videos, are you not worried that they could turn

away from Skype when there is this going on? We have struck a balance.

If you don't want stickers and images, you can use it as a

medication 's application but on the other hand, if you like to express

yourself, that is a swipe away for you. In other news, Fox's reportedly

. Several movies have begun shooting and it comes as the Chinese media

giant adds Hollywood movies to their digital publishing platforms. That's

all for this edition, of Asia Business Report. Thank you for

watching. President Trump has confirmed

that the United States will withdraw from the Paris agreement

on combating climate change. Police say the motive for an attack

on a casino in Manila is likely