Climate Change

After working in government for 11 years (in a state environmental agency) and having been an environmental and political activist for a fair number of years before, during and after that, I have come to have a healthy skepticism — okay cynicism — about the reach of good public policy in legislation and actual real […]

Sorry that I've been off the air since early last week.  Wednesday through Friday, I was attending the annual conference of an international scholarly association, for which I am the newsletter editor.  I also gave a paper there.  Saturday, it was an all-day rugby tournament, a fundraiser for an injured clubmate of ours.  Yesterday, I […]

As always these days, there's an awful lot going on.  Here are what I hope you'll find to be pretty interesting items: Carbon Dioxide by U.S. States , The A.P. took USDOE data and analyzed it and found some interesting numbers.  Not surprisingly, some of the leading states for population lead the nation in carbon […]

No matter how you slice it, global warming or climate change, according to a news search on Google, U.S. President George Bush's announcement yesterday got a lot of attention.  There are over a thousand stories on Bush and either "climate change" or "global warming."  From Bangkok to Bloomington, from Vladivostok to Vincennes, what the White […]

This events firm, "established in 2003 by a team of professional, environmentally aware event experts," have held conferences with over 4,000 attendees from 76 countries.  You should check out their upcoming events and visit their "live" blog from the conference they're holding now in London.  They've got interesting content, including some "vlogs."  One post, "7 […]

I continue to be fascinated by the burgeoning of all sorts of new approaches to generating energy and saving energy.  I mentioned in my post from May 16 on the Large Cities Summit that George David, the CEO of United Technologies, had some fascinating things to say about using energy and the potential for radically […]

So, earlier this week I dropped in to the Carbon Finance & Investment Summit , "Where Carbon Players Come To Do Business."  Okay.  I sat in on two sessions:  Carbon Funds' Plans And Strategies In The Carbon Space and Private Equity And Hedge Funds' Plans And Strategies In The Carbon Space.  Of the twelve worthy […]

My colleague, Derek Catsam, has been doing some great work on Africa. One of his latest posts is on Africa and Climate Change. See some of the important themes he's developing, including Capetown as a "green" city. While you're visiting, read up on some of the many important issues associated with Africa and Derek's astute […]

Carbon Offsetting , I've touched on offsets a few times along the way since March:  in "The Business of Green" and in Markets, and of course, in the last post below from Kate Hamilton on Carbon Expo. Here's a succinct description of offsets from a "NY Times" article from May 8, Sale of Carbon Credits Helping […]

There's an event in New York this coming week called the Carbon Finance & Investment Summit which I'll visit and on which I'll report.   I talked about the carbon market, and others, in the post from April 19, Markets.   I then mentioned an event in Cologne, Carbon Expo, that took place at the beginning of […]

Yesterday morning, they had a press conference to wind the summit up. As I sat waiting for Ken Livingstone to start the proceedings, I thought about how long it had taken to get here. Finally, there’s enormous momentum from governments at all levels, as well as from industry and finance, and all working with the […]

On Wednesday, L.A.’s mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa, announced his city’s Green LA plan, which incorporates a commitment to 35% use of renewables by 2020.  The Green LA plan is not unlike “PLANYC” in emphasizing energy efficiency, renewables, mass transit and alternative fuels for surface transport, etc. The afternoon session, “Cities Can Thrive in a Low-Carbon Economy,” was led […]