Global warming

U.S. voluntary carbon market does not reward complexity

I had a lively discussion with Susan Wood, CEO of SCC Americas, at the Carbon Finance North America Conference last week. SCC Americas is the U.S. arm of Syndicatum Carbon Capital, one of the largest developers of Kyoto-based CDM carbon credit projects in the world. Susan herself has been doing emissions trading for more than a decade, after starting out as an environmental engineer.

The punchline in our chat was quite fascinating--the U.S. voluntary carbon market does not reward complexity in projects, Susan says. Basically, U.S. carbon credit developers are only doing a few limited types of … Read more

'Carbon Belch Day' promotes un-green actions

Smoke cigars, do a partial load of laundry, drink bottled water, and feel no shame. That's what a campaign against a carbon trading bill is urging.

The latest parody of the proliferation of "green" social-networking sites and eco-friendly events comes via "Carbon Belch Day," a campaign from the conservative Grassfire.org alliance that encourages people to pollute as much as possible on June 12.

So far, more than 140,000 people have signed a petition against "climate alarmism," according to Ron De Jong, spokesman for Grassfire.org. If the effort attracts half a … Read more

Satellite images link polluted clouds to lack of rain

New methods of using satellites to examine clouds are helping scientists to understand how pollution influences rainfall.

Researchers from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration have used a group of satellites known as the Afternoon Constellation, or A-Train, to peer into the chemical composition and behaviors of clouds.

"Typically, it is very hard to get a sense of how important the effect of pollution on clouds is," Anne Douglass, deputy project scientist for NASA's Aura satellite, said in a statement. "With the A-Train, we can see the clouds every day and we're getting confirmation on … Read more

Will people pay more for cleaner energy? You decide

It's funny how the same study can spark slightly different, even contradictory reactions. Consulting firm Deloitte released a report Monday of consumers' attitudes about household energy costs and climate change. Here's how two publications interpreted the results.

Greenwire: Most would accept higher electric bills to battle warming -- survey

A majority of Americans say they are willing to pay slightly higher electricity bills to help curb greenhouse gas emissions from power plants...More than 36 percent of respondents said they would accept a 5 percent increase, and 17 percent of respondents would accept a 10 percent annual boost … Read more

Google Earth app shows effects of climate change

The Met Office Hadely Center, British Antarctic Survey, and the U.K. government on Monday introduced a Google Earth application that visualizes the anticipated temperatures changes from climate change over the next 100 years.

The animation uses a color scheme to show the differences in temperatures layed over a Google Earth image.

People can also click on icons on the image to get more on how the data was compiled, stories from people affected by climate change, and information on the projected regional impact of climate change.

The initiative was launched by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown at the Google … Read more

Green-tech news harvest: Wind-powered sports car

Here's a sampling of recent green-tech news:

Sony Unveils Ultrasmall Hybrid Fuel Cell -- Tech-On Sony looks to put fuel cells in gadgets, following a prototype that Sharp demonstrated last week that uses methanol as a fuel.

Canon patents fuel cell-powered cameras -- Crave -- CNET AsiaFuel cells are coming to consumer electronics, it seems. Quite a bit of activity on this front in the past week.

Oil Left in the Ground -- Technology ReviewWe have smart grids--why not have "smart oil fields?" Interest in existing oil fields, where as much as 75 percent of … Read more

EcoSecurities founder says carbon markets work

As arguably the largest single market segment in the clean-tech sector, carbon markets are an area of keen interest for me personally and professionally, so it is always frustrating that the mainstream media largely refuses to learn the details.

In general, layman and media who don't understand the details of the carbon markets attack carbon offsets in two areas: first, questioning whether the credits are for a project that would have occurred anyway (a concept known in carbon as "additionality"); and second, questioning whether there are checks and balances to ensure the environmental standards are adhered to … Read more

Is ethanol lowering prices at the pump for consumers?

Despite providing the largest portion of alternative fuel in the US, corn ethanol gets a lot of flack in the circles Cleantech Blog runs in. The usual culprits go something like this: Corn ethanol is heavily subsidized (yes it is). Corn ethanol does not reduce greenhouse gas emissions (sort of, it really, really depends on your assumptions). Corn ethanol contributes to the fertilizer driven "deadzone" in the Gulf of Mexico (maybe, another complicated topic). Corn ethanol drives up the price of food (a topic for another day).

But the main argument for supporting corn ethanol production has always … Read more

Is anyone doing any business in renewable energy?

Okay, that's kind of a specious lead in, but seriously, both the investment tax credit (ITC) for solar and the production tax credit (PTC) for wind are up for expiration in barely 6 months in the US. And that seems to be much higher on industry workers minds than actually doing business.

I have had conversation after conversation over the past weeks indicating that the policy renewal is increasingly the biggest topic of concern.

M&A deals are getting held up waiting to see the impact on valuations

Sales teams have added the "fear factor" of … Read more