13 March '10
7:41 PM EST
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  Cleantech
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This Week in Green Energy: “America’s Economy Is at Stake!”

Energy Secretary Steven Chu, often described at the “smartest man in the room” in the Obama administration, urged Congress to pass a comprehensive climate and energy bill. Speaking this week at a conference at Stanford University, Chu warned that failure to seriously tackle climate change could limit the nation’s ability to be a leader in the green-energy technologies of tomorrow.

He warned:

The future prosperity of the United States is at risk. I think we will lose (and) end up purchasing equipment from abroad.

Along with an overhaul of the country’s healthcare system, the Obama administration has made clean energy-  and specifically, ensuring that it beats China as the world’s leading green power – one of its top priorities. The country that wins the clean energy race will lead the 21st century, President  Obama often repeats.

But much like the healthcare debate (at least until recently), on the Senate side, the energy and climate change discussion has been paralyzed by ongoing debates about the validity of carbon pricing and yes, (hard to believe) whether human-made climate change is real. The House overcame those divisions this summer, approving its energy and climate change bill in a largely partisan vote. Read More »

12 January '10
2:09 PM EST
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  Funding

Report: Asset Managers Do Not Consider Climate Change in Investment Strategies

Asset managers for large investment funds are not taking climate risks into account in their investment strategies, according to a new report from Ceres.

The failure of the managers to factor climate trends into their decisions exposes their multitrillion dollar portfolios to “hidden risks.”

The survey was sent to the world’s 500 largest asset managers and 84 managers, with $8.6 trillion under management, responded. Nearly half said they did not consider climate risks at all.

Mindy S. Lubber, president of Ceres and director of the Investor Network on Climate Risk, said.

Despite the growing recognition of the far-reaching impacts climate change will have on the global economy, only a handful of asset managers are integrating climate risks and opportunities throughout their investment practices.

The report recommends that institutional investors push asset managers to pay more attention to climate-issues.

18 December '09
8:19 AM EST
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  Policy

COP15: Obama in Copenhagen, Chances for Binding, Meaningful Agreement Slim

President Obama speaks in Copenhagen.

President Obama: "Time for talk is over."

President Barack Obama has arrived in frigid Copenhagen for the last day of the United Nations Climate Change Conference as divisions between developed and developing nations remain very real, dampening chances for a substantial binding climate change agreement.

Speaking to delegates at the plenary session Obama said:

The time for talk is over, this is the bottom line: We can embrace this accord, take a substantial step forward. We can do that and everyone who is in this room will be part of an historic endeavor or we can choose delay. We will back here making the same stale arguments, year after year, perhaps decade after decade, all until the danger of climate change grows until it is irreversible.

Read More »

1 December '09
6:16 PM EST
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  Policy

Climate Change Scientist Keith Jones Temporarily Leaves Post Amid Investigation

Keith Jones, the head of the Climate head of the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia says he’s stepping aside while the university conducts a review focusing on exactly how his unit conducted climate change research.

Jones’ departure comes a couple of weeks after servers at the CRU were hacked, making public a string of scintillating emails that, at least on face value, cast doubt on the reality of man-made climate change. University officials have confirmed that the leaked emails are legitimate.

In one particular email from 1999, which has drawn a lot of attention, Jones writes that he will perform “the trick of adding in the real temps for each series for the past 20 years… to hide the decline.”

In a statement posted today on the university Web site, Jones says:

What is most important is that CRU continues its world leading research with as little interruption and diversion as possible. After a good deal of consideration I have decided that the best way to achieve this is by stepping aside from the Director’s role during the course of the independent review and am grateful to the University for agreeing to this. The Review process will have my full support.

30 November '09
4:00 AM EST
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  Policy

8 Days to Copenhagen: China and the U.S. Commit to CO2 Cuts

Picture 1After an extended Thanksgiving weekend, we’re back to what it is we do: Report and comment on clean energy investments and policies.

To start the week, we’re looking at China and the U.S., which last week released much-awaited long-term targets for carbon emissions cuts.

The two announcements came a little more than a week ahead of the Copenhagen climate change summit. President Obama is attending the event for one day — on his way to Oslo to get his Nobel — and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao will be in attendance, as well.

China said it plans to cut its greenhouse gas emissions per unit of economic output by 40-45 percent by 2020. Specifically, the country is not cutting its carbon emission outright but reducing its carbon intensity or the amount of carbon produced per unit of gross domestic product. Read More »

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