While I have covered quite comprehensively in these pages how one would seize and leverage opportunities present in the Asian water market from various corporate perspectives, including finance, logistics, capital management and even human resources, one topic I have not properly covered is climate change. What makes this especially pressing in my view - such that I am prompted to write about it for the first time - is the record-breaking heatwave that I found myself in when I was in various parts of Europe last month, and the fact that China also found itself in a similar predicament only a couple of weeks later. That this is a challenge of gargantuan proportions is clear. But it also presents opportunities that may be worth a second look. More than 65% of China's residents were given some form of heat warning, with over 70 weather stations recording their highest temperatures ever. In the southern metropolis of Guangzhou, home to a large number of factories, the government appealed for less energy to be used, so the grid would not be overwhelmed throughout the city's longest heat wave since 1951. In coastal Fuzhou, the mercury soared above 41℃ for days.
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