The roadmap to China's evolving automotive market | ASIA TODAY News & Events

The second edition of NextGen Auto International China Summit will take place from 9 – 10 December at the Kerry Hotel in Shanghai's Pudong district. Co-organised by Messe Frankfurt (Shanghai) Co Ltd and the International Cooperation Centre of National Development and Reform Commission, the 2013 conference will focus on sustainable and globally-competitive solutions for China's automotive industry.

Attendees can expect to receive a wealth of knowledge on emerging global trends in energy-efficiency and smart technology. Through a series of business models, products, services as well as technological breakthroughs, NextGen Auto aims to facilitate a more profitable and sustainable future for all stakeholders in China's automotive market. During its 2012 edition, over 300 delegates attended, with professionals including OEMs, government policy makers, suppliers, dealers, aftermarket service providers and much more.

China is expected to lead the global market for the automotive industry in the coming years. The sheer size of the nation's automotive market has drawn interest from a number of key players in government policy as well as commercial development. But in order to grow the country's automotive market sustainably, a number of areas need to be properly addressed. Some of the topics of discussion to address these areas at NextGen Auto's 2013 edition include:

• E-mobility and electrification: What are the critical steps needed for faster market growth to be achieved?
• Hybrid vehicles and their potential for the passenger and commercial vehicle markets
• How can advanced fuels, hybrids, new materials and digital technology boost efficiency in commercial vehicles?
• Strategies for dealerships distributors: What new business and service markets are emerging?
• Digital marketing and social media: How can these powerful tools aid OEMs and dealerships?

The full list of speakers for 2013 is still in development. However over 35 influential industry experts have already confirmed their participation. Some of which include:

• Thomas Hajek, Board Member for Fiat Chrysler Group
• Boriana Lambreva, Senior Manager, Volkswagen (China)
• Martin Rosell, Managing Director, WirelessCar (Volvo)
• Klaus Dieter Breitschwert, Chairman, Bavarian Car Industry & Board Member, part of the German Federation for Motor Vehicle Trades and Repairs (ZDK)

Additionally, domestic policy and planning initiatives will be addressed by senior directors from China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) and China Automotive Technology and Research Center (CATARC).

NextGen Auto International China Summit 2013 will be held concurrently with Automechanika Shanghai, Asia's largest event for auto parts, accessories, equipment and services, taking place from 10 – 13 December at the Shanghai New International Expo Center. For more information on the fee-based conference, please e-mail nextgenauto@hongkong.messefrankfurt.com

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Where on Earth will the waste go? | ASIA TODAY News & Events

Human waste production has multiplied tenfold in the last century. Rubbish – plastic bags, pizza boxes, empty beer cans, tinfoil, bubble wrap, old mattresses, rusty machinery, broken bottles, spent batteries, stale sandwiches, wilting salads and abandoned newsprint – is being generated faster than any other environmental pollutants, including greenhouse gases. And the problem will go on getting bigger until some time in the next century.

Daniel Hoornweg of the University of Ontario and Chris Kennedy of the University of Toronto in Canada and Perinaz Bhada-Tata of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates argue in Nature that the combination of urban growth and material affluence is creating a throwaway problem that won't go away. The average person in the US throws away his (or her) own body weight in rubbish every month. The detritus linked to modern living has not only grown tenfold in a century; by 2025 it will double again.

Solid waste disposal has become one of any modern city's biggest costs. Landfill sites near Shanghai, in Rio de Janeiro, and in Mexico City typically receive 10,000 tonnes of waste a day. The world now has more than 2,000 waste incinerators, some able to burn 5,000 tonnes a day, creating attendant problems of ash and air-polluting fumes.

Landfill waste is of course also a notorious source of methane – a potent greenhouse gas – but the authors are primarily concerned with the simple problems posed by the increasing volume of affluent society's rejected stuff.

It's a city thing, they say. Country dwellers don't buy so much packaged food, don't have factories and don't throw so much food away. City dwellers on average generate twice as much waste; the more affluent urbanites throw away four times as much.

The three researchers – an expert in energy systems, a civil engineer and an urban waste consultant – say that in 1900 there were 220 million people in the cities. That was 13% of the planet's population, and these townsfolk produced 300,000 tonnes of discarded stuff every day.

By 2000, there were 2.9 billion people in cities – 49% of the world's population – creating more than three million tonnes of solid waste per day. By 2025, it will be twice that = enough to fill a line of rubbish trucks 5,000 kilometres long every day.

International idiosyncrasies

Some countries are more profligate than others. Japan's citizens produce about one third less, per person, than US citizens, even though the gross domestic product per capita is about the same. China's solid waste generation is expected to go from 520,550 tonnes per day to 1.4 million by 2025.

"As a country becomes richer, the composition of its waste changes," the authors say. "With more money comes more packaging, imports, electronic waste and broken toys and appliances. The wealth of a country can readily be measured, for example, by how many mobile phones it discards."

Hoornweg and Bhada-Tata are the authors of a 2012 World Bank report in which they projected a world dustbin collection of 6 million tonnes a day by 2025. They calculate that under a business-as-usual scenario waste will grow with population and affluence as the century wears on, with increasing growth in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, and by 2100 it will exceed 11 million tonnes a day and peak sometime in the next century. But this scenario is not inevitable.

"With lower populations, denser, more resource-efficient cities and less consumption (along with higher affluence) the peak could come forward to 2075 and reduce in intensity by more than 25%," they say. This would save around 2.6 million tonnes per day.

SOURCE / Climate News Network

Sent from Goay Joe Lie

Director of Joe Lie Beauty And Cosmetics

3rd, 3-45, Complex Bukit Jambul, Penang, Malaysia.

Contact : 016-404 3004

                016-521 9853