A new report released by independent research firm, Verdantix, explains why firms are floundering with carbon management and putting the future of the business at risk due to flawed governance and strained business processes. It warns that unless CEOs take ownership of carbon management as a business transformation challenge their firms will fail to achieve absolute reductions in CO2 emissions.
Jennifer Kaplan takes a look at how small businesses can have a big impact on the economy and why it is to their advantage to go green.
With global eco awareness expanding on climate issues, it is not a surprise to many that the fastest growth in CO2 levels has occurred in the last 10 years. Studies indicate that electricity generation and consumption is the largest contributor and is increasing faster than any other energy sector. However, efforts to manage electricity show the slowest decline in emissions progress.
The average American produces three times the amount of CO2 emissions as a person in France. A U.S. journalist now living in Europe explains how she learned to love her clothesline and sweating in summer.
The world stands to gain 6.9 million jobs by 2030 in the clean energy sector if a strong deal is reached in Copenhagen, according to a report released recently by Greenpeace International and the European Renewable Energy Council (EREC). A switch from coal to renewable electricity generation will not just avoid 10 billion tons of CO2 emissions, but will create 2.7 million more jobs by 2030 than if we continue business as usual. Conversely, the global coal industry – which currently supports about 4.7 million employees worldwide – is likely to contract by more than 1.4 million jobs by 2030, due to rationalization measures in existing coal mines.
On August 11, the Financial Times reported on the promise of “synthetic biology,” including the development of algae that generates biofuels. In July, ExxonMobil entered into a $600 million venture with Synthetic Genomics, a firm founded by biotech pioneer Dr. Craig Venter. “Synthetic Genomics has already engineered strains of algae that secrete oil from their cells,” writes the FT’s Clive Cookson. Will oil companies transform themselves into algae companies? Or, a few years from now, could the makers of “Who Killed the Electric Car?” film a sequel about algae?
I’m not even talking about the energy savings, cost savings and environmental benefits though. I’m going to focus on tax credits. A number of places have mandated green roofs under certain circumstances; Toronto, Tokyo and Switzerland to name a few. Another approach that’s often more agreeable to building owners and developers is the voluntary opportunity to receive tax credits.
In a presentation before national policymakers and analysts recently, leading clean energy venture capitalists, academics and CEOs unveiled the “Gigaton Throwdown,” an assessment of the nation’s clean energy potential that identifies seven industries capable of creating 5 million clean energy jobs and reducing CO2 emissions by 5-7 gigatons by 2020. The report, a collaborative effort between leading researchers at UC Berkeley, MIT, University of Michigan, Stanford, and Drexel University, and clean tech leaders, challenges Washington policymakers to remove obstacles that keep billions of capital investment dollars sitting on the sidelines.
Dr. Elaine C. Kamarck, former domestic policy advisor to Vice President Al Gore and co-founder of the U.S. Climate Task Force (CTF), has unveiled a new report that examines lessons learned from past efforts to legislate on climate change and how those precedents can be applied to help pass an emissions policy in the 111th Congress. Her expert analysis, featured in the report, “Addressing Climate Change: The Politics of the Policy Options”, breaks these lessons into five categories.
