“China invested almost twice as much in clean energy projects last year compared with the US, and has emerged as the world’s market leader in installed wind power capacity in 2009”. An impressive opening by the last issue of the Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Indices, released by Ernst & Young. The US, despite the increasing likelihood that the clean energy bill will not pass before the November mid-term elections and the lowest installed wind capacity last quarter since 2007, is placed as the second most attractive country in the world to invest in renewable energy.
On one side, two countries have experimented a two point increase in the index, India and UK, due to Government’s injection (US$ 1 billion) in the green economy by the former, and the government plans to launch a £2 billion “green investment bank” fund by the latter. On the other side, “Greece, Spain and Portugal have all suffered negative score changes due to worsening capital markets and a downward revision of sovereign credit ratings by Standard and Poor (S&P)”, stresses the report.
The report shows that China is now tied with America as the most attractive location in which to invest in renewable energy projects. The report looks at the "Shift to green" and challenges for renewable support mechanisms.
The Country Attractiveness Indices track the relative attractiveness of 27 countries’ renewable energy markets across a selection of technologies each quarter. The Ernst & Young index tracks and scores investment in renewable energy, all renewables, long-term on or off-shore solar photovoltaic, concentrated solar power, biomass, geothermal and infrastructure. Since 2003, the Ernst & Young Energy and Environmental Infrastructure Advisory team has been releasing quarterly data that ranks national renewable energy markets, and their suitability for individual technologies.
Via: EY
LikeA few weeks ago, The New York Times featured an opinion editorial by ex US Vice-President Al Gore, which I highly recommend reading. Basically, Gore says that despite last year’s climate gate, and the disillusioning failure of Copenhagen, the menace of climate change is still real.
Who doesn’t wish global warming was just a conspiracy or a scientific mistake? “It would be an enormous relief…” Gore recognizes, and a huge “burden would be lifted”. Yet, years of scientific research and evidence, and hundreds of reports prove that our climate is in fact going through a crisis. We are polluting the environment, which causes the sun’s heat to be trapped, making atmospheric temperatures increase. The only uncertainty is whether we will act or not.
Let’s be honest, Copenhagen was not what we expected. What we had in mind was that an international treaty in which countries would accept to be legally bound to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions would be achieved. The main purpose of the summit was the establishment of a strong and binding agreement, and this was not achieved.
BUT, we Sustentators believe that in order to progress we need to find the positive side of things. While no binding agreement was reached, there were other accomplishments, possibly minor, but not irrelevant.
To start with, more than 110 world leaders gathered with a common goal: to discuss how to address climate change. We believe this is really remarkable. The Presidents of the USA, China, Germany, France and Brazil, among others, were in Copenhagen. That means the world and political leaders are giving increasing importance to global warming.
Secondly, the conference was covered by thousands of media reporting during the two weeks of Copenhagen on the progress and challenges that occurred there. This breadth in media coverage must have reached many people around the world, which were in contact with environmental problems. This is a virtuous circle, because if more people are aware, the social pressure increases for politicians, and this helps legitimate stronger actions.
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Some of you may think “thank God they do”, some others don’t believe in it yourselves. Anyhow, a survey by Ipsos McClatchy discovered that 70% of North Americans believe that temperature has been going up in the past century. And 61% of them believe that this warming is due mostly to human activity, such as burning fossil fuels.
Nowadays, people who do not believe in climate change are often dubbed “climate skeptics” by the media. I am not sure of how pleasant it must be to be called that way. There is plenty of evidence and studies that show that the climate is in fact changing. But if we expect to spread the news, accusing others of being skeptics might not be the best way to do this.
One of the keys to solving this unprecedented crisis I think we are in is actually to get people to realize what’s going on and to care enough to do something about it. If climate change is happening (which I think it is), we need to be as open-minded as possible, to be ready to show our arguments, and to listen to others’ arguments.
Political solutions such as emissions trading, or carbon taxes, or carbon budget, are necessary. But without social involvement they will definitely not be even close to solving the problem. If we are to evolve to a system that can co-exist with nature, as many people as possible, from George Bush to my neighbor, need to at least consider the possibility that global warming is happening.
That’s why I think this Ipsos poll is encouraging; it shows that a large part of US citizens actually believe in climate change. That’s many minds focused on the same problem, potentially capable of creating new solutions, and working together to build the necessary changes we all need to make. Besides, global warming is being generated by us, by society, and society is made up of each and every one of us. So if you and I decide to do something about it, if we start to reduce our environmental impact, already society’s impact on the whole is decreasing. You can start… now.
VIA: Treehugger
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the US government, the national unemployment rate, last October, rose to 10.2%, the highest one since April 1983.
Unemployment means wanting to work and not finding a job. It may mean hunger, despair, lack of opportunities.
On the other hand, we have the highest levels of CO2 in the atmosphere recorded in thousands of years. More CO2 means more greenhouse effect. More greenhouse effect means a warmer planet, with sometimes unpredictable consequences, and other already perceivable effects such as droughts, floods, rising sea levels, and other such natural disasters.
What if we could link these two problems and solve them simultaneously?
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A neighborhood of 12 net-zero energy homes (which consume as much energy as they generate) is being built in the north of Boulder, Colorado. They are designed to meet green building standards, specifically LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum certification, the most demanding ones around. The so-called SpringLeaf Boulder project wants to make green homes available to a larger amount of people. That’s why costs are trying to be lowered.
The houses were designed by architect George Watt, and are now being built by Silver Lining Builders.
Electricity will come from the photovoltaic panels that will be installed in each house, on the roof. The system will be linked to the grid, via a net-metering system. So, when the panels aren’t working, (at night or on cloudy days), homes can use energy coming from the grid. However, the homes are designed to generate enough electricity to be self-sustaining.
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US president Barack Obama and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh signed a number of agreements to work together on climate change and energy security. This is great news, being the US the second largest carbon-emitter, and India the fourth. The US has already advanced on negotiations with China. The fact that such powerful leaders are starting to jointly address environmental issues is a great sign, and might be of great help to create a stronger and more effective climate deal in Copenhagen.
Some of the initiatives they have agreed on are the following:
The US and India will foster development and deployment of clean energy technologies. An Indo-US Clean Energy Research and Deployment Initiative has been launched. This includes a Joint Research Center. Some of the priorities of this initiative include energy efficiency, smart grid, second-generation biofuels, and clean coal technologies such as carbon capture and storage. Also solar energy, sustainable transportation, and wind energy development.
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US president Barack Obama’s visit to China is proving to be worth its carbon footprint… Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao have already established a deal to share information on renewable energy. Now they’ve announced some great plans on clean energy initiatives.
Their plan focuses mainly on clean energy. The idea is that the implementation of clean energy will be studied and fostered, and that emissions will be hopefully reduced thanks to natural gas and the development of carbon capture technology.
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Today, November 15, is the US national recycling day. It is dedicated to fostering recycling among Americans, and to promote the buying of recycled products.
This is the 12th year the America Recycles Day takes place.
You can find events happening today here .
The next Enviro Expo USA will take place this weekend. It is sponsored by Southeastgreen.com and Audi, among others.
Its mission is to enhance the exchange of information related to sustainable development and sustainable products between consumers, manufacturers, researchers and others interested in being more environmentally friendly.
It will be situated in the Georgia World Congress Center.
There will be a wide variety of topics addressed, including renewable energies, landscaping, green weddings, and recycling. To see the schedule click here .
For more information, click here .
US president Barack Obama has announced he will be attending the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference next month, and will do his best to make a treaty happen.
We were talking yesterday about the importance the US has for the Copenhagen Conference. Being the US one of the most powerful nations in the world, and one of the main greenhouse gas emitters, it is crucial for the US to lead the way and accept to be legally tied to reducing its greenhouse gases. If the US does not get involved, many others might wonder, why should we?
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Many say Copenhagen is our last chance. That if we want to avoid major climatic catastrophe, we need to reach a transcendent treaty, through which countries decide on how global warming will be controlled. As usual, political will is a crucial ingredient in this process. The tools are there, available for us, the technology is there. But what good are these without politicians willing to use them?
As Al Gore says, this climate crisis represents both a risk and an opportunity. Most politicians, I think, are not only not seeing the opportunity for growth this situation represents, but also ignoring the seriousness of the risks we face. There is a general lack of will to take the lead and work on a solution.
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