Climate Change

I have to admit, back in December I didn't think that Barack Obama would be the nominee of the Democratic Party.  I predicted then, in my year in review, that either Hillary Clinton or John Edwards would be the nominee, and the eventual next President.  (I also predicted that Bill Richardson, a very good man […]

Okay, so a lot of scientists and engineers are working on CCS. That's clear. The question is: Will their hard work and expertise translate into a viable, affordable mechanism for eliminating, or even curtailing the massive, climate-altering impact of the carbon dioxide that spews inexorably, interminably from the world's thousands of coal-fired power plants? Remember, […]

I wrote a couple of weeks ago here on clean coal technology.  First of all, let me explain that I am not rooting against the possibility of finding some way to capture and sequester carbon dioxide from coal-fired power plants and other sources.  It's just that there is so much reliance on coal now, and […]

The leading scientists of 13 nations yesterday called for significant cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.  The science academies of the G8 plus those of Brazil, Mexico, India, China and South Africa issued a joint statement on "Climate Change Adaptation and the Transition to a Low Carbon Society."  See this from Reuters.  The statement targets the […]

I'm sorry to report that the backers of renewable energy tax credit legislation today failed to get enough votes to get a vote on the legislation itself, H.R. 6049, the Renewable Energy and Job Creation Act of 2008.  This is getting tired.  I reported yesterday on the continued blossoming of activity in renewables.  However, things […]

Offshore in Britain , The UK's Crown Estate is looking to create up to 25 GW of offshore wind in the next dozen years. Okay. What is the Crown Estate? It is the British monarchy's real property and enterprises, and it is managed separately from government properties. Here's the story from CarbonFree. The Crown Estate […]

As expected, the climate change bill died in the Senate because of an inability to invoke cloture.  See this from the AP.  You didn't have to be a seer to predict this.  See my item on this under "Melange" from May 3 below. Don't worry, though.  We'll get this done in 2009.  Early.

BofA Leader Wants Government to Help , Ken Lewis, the CEO of the Bank of America, ranked 12 in the Fortune 500 and with about $1.3 trillion in assets, had a terrific op-ed in the "FT" today.  In it he notes the critical importance of government's role in "working to build a new economic future […]

Senate on Climate Change , In the US, the Senate began debate yesterday on legislation to address climate change. The "SF Chronicle" reports here that the opponents and proponents were so eager to start bare knuckling over the bill that they voted 74-14 to proceed to debate. The bill "would require about 2,100 major U.S. […]

I sat in on the last day of this event in New York City on Friday, hearing two fascinating panels discuss “Corporate Strategies For Carbon Reduction” (in the context of federal cap-and-trade legislation) and Clean Tech’s role in getting GHG’s down. The main sponsors of the summit were EcoSecurities, one of the world’s largest developers […]

Not only is the planet heating up, but, as we've seen here, so is the intensity and the seriousness of the debate on how to get GHG's down.  One persistent theme is the necessity of "setting a price on carbon."  We've heard this from the Stern Review, the IPCC, Lehman Brothers in their reports on […]

I recently added this site to the links section here. It's a pretty extraordinary tool for accessing information. It is described as "a knowledge management project for international negotiations and related activities on climate change run by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD). Use it in good health.