… that’s 180 of the largest investment firms and funds in the world, says the Green Chip Review.
On September 16, investors at the International Investor Forum on Climate Change in New York issued a joint statement calling for climate action. Those dollars, euros, yen, and yuan can be diverted away from high-risk polluters and companies that don’t get with the program.
Is it because Green is a good cause? Not likely!
Greed is very good for Green.
Riggs
$13 Trillion In Assets Back Green Funding
China Will Set New Climate Change Package
Still secret, the package of emission targets will likely include domestic enforcement. As reported in Climate Wire,
Chinese President Hu Jintao is expected to announce today a sweeping climate change package that some here claim may elevate China to a leadership position on climate change. While the details are still cloaked in mystery, U.N. climate chief Yvo de Boer and others close to China’s climate negotiating team say it will likely take the form of a “suite” of voluntary targets for emissions with domestically enforceable measures.
China’s need to roughly double its energy capacity in the next few years will likely make it the leader in New Energy.
Riggs
US climate bill goes to Plan B…
The Obama Administration may be looking for a much tamer approach, with a far less ambitious bill in 2010 — maybe even after the midterms, meaning 2011. As Climate Wire reports:
A day after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) hinted that climate legislation might be postponed until 2010, some analysts wondered whether that actually could mean 2011. Or perhaps that it wouldn’t be considered in the Senate at all. With congressional midterm elections looming next year, they say the timetable is limited for politicians to act on a major bill before partisan rancor dominates Capitol Hill. That is raising speculation that lawmakers and the Obama administration may go for a [...]
More geese are staying in Alaska for the winter
Better food supplies are leading to more geese staying put. September 10’s Anchorage Daily News reports:
Increasingly, the Pacific brant — a small, dark sea goose — is choosing to spend its winters in Alaska rather than migrating to Mexico’s Baja California peninsula, according to a recent U.S. Geological Survey study of the species.
One possible explanation for the shift could be the availability of eelgrass, a brant staple. Warming conditions in Alaska have led to less coastal sea ice, making the nutrient-rich eelgrass accessible.
Fewer than 3,000 brant wintered in the state before 1977. Now the number exceeds 40,000.
Riggs
CA may increase renewables mandate today
An eleventh-hour session-closing vote would raise the state’s renewable portfolio standard (RPS) to 33 percent of total generation by 2020, which would be the toughest yet passed in the country, reports Greenwire. This builds on the current 20-percent-by-2010 mandate.
Provisions to limit power importing will ensure that this massive new amount of green generation occurs within the state.
Riggs
Health Care Delays Jeopardizing Climate Deal
“Democrats’ desire to realize health care reform… makes it all but certain that climate legislation won’t see the Senate floor this year.” That’s Stuart Eizenstat, , who was the lead U.S. negotiator on the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, as reported in Climate Wire.
Fortunately, the Climate Wire article reports signs of progress elsewhere:
In other arenas, experts said they have seen fresh momentum build over the summer toward a climate deal. Analysts have long expected Obama to sign a concrete energy agreement with China when he travels there in November. Last week, Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) publicly confirmed the intent to agree to a new bilateral treaty.
Agreement between the United States and China — [...]
Renewables Now Exceed Nuclear
From Energy & Capital:
For the second month in a row, renewable energy has provided more energy than all nuclear reactors in the country combined…
The Monthly Energy Review chronicles energy production and consumption data through May 2009.
From January to May, production from coal fell from 1.968 quadrillion Btu (QBTU) to 1.722 QBTU — a 13% decline.
The use of natural gas fell 0.6%, from 1.845 QBTU to 1.834 QBTU.
And nuclear went from .771 QBTU .684 QBTU, falling 11.2%.
Can you guess what happened to renewables?
They grew from .650 QBTU to .707 QBTU — a rise of 8.7% — and clearly the only grower of the bunch.
The trend will accelerate…
Riggs
Punting on Cap and Trade…
That’s how The Huddle puts it today:
‘Sen. Barbara Boxer of California, chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works… has decided to push back the introduction again. In a joint statement Monday with Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, her partner in drafting the bill, Ms. Boxer said the legislation ‘is moving along well’ but that the new goal is to introduce the measure ‘later in September.’
This legislation is falling victim to the battle lines being drawn between the parties. It will be interesting to see if we are ready for COP-15 in December. My guess is, no.
Riggs