Articles on Green Businesses - Page 4 of 45

Renewable Energy Developers Wanted to Spread the Green

by Ken Silverstein for Forbes

Smaller enterprises want energy developers to spread the green, allowing them to get in on the renewable wave rolling through America. The dynamic has made it easier for larger corporations with more demand to buy wind and solar electricity but it has nudged out the less brawnier brands.

The guys at Google and Facebook, for example, are stimulating the need for wind and solar energy that they are using to feed their electricity-starved data centers. The developers of those energy projects, in return, are getting solid customers that are buying their output at a fixed price over a certain period of years.

But individual commercial and industrial customers aren’t generating the type of demand that can propel big energy projects into the market. Now, though, that may change. The same so-called power purchase agreements that are used to attract the likes of Microsoft, Intel and SA…

Military Leaders Label Climate a Major Threat

Senior US military and national security experts demand “robust” strategy to tackle climate change, labelling it a major threat to US and international security A bipartisan group of 25 senior military leaders and national security experts have described climate change as a "significant risk" to national security and issued a joint call for a "comprehensive policy" response. The group, which includes the former security advisers to Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W Bush, said in a letter published yesterday that it is critical the US address climate change at a scale appropriate to the risk it presents. They called for a "robust agenda" to prevent and prepare for climate change risks - and warned a failure to do so would amplify risks to national security. Related articles "There are few easy answers, but one thing is clear: the current trajectory of climatic change presents a strategically-significant risk to US national security, and inaction is not a viab…

China Now Largest Investor Renewable Energies Worldwide

BEIJING, July 3, 2016 (Xinhua) -- A full solar power vehicle is presented during a ceremony held by Chinese renewable energy company Hanergy Holding Group in Beijing, capital of China, July 2, 2016. Hanergy launched four full solar power vehicles at the ceremony on Saturday. (Xinhua/Cai Yang) (wx)[/caption] The International Energy Agency (IEA) on Wednesday launched its first detailed report of global energy investment, with China singled out for praise. In the first detailed analysis of investment across the global energy system, the IEA reported that global energy investment fell by 8 percent in 2015, with a drop in oil and gas upstream spending outweighing continued robust investment in renewable energies, electricity networks and energy efficiency. Total investment in the energy sector reached 1.8 trillion U.S. dollars in 2015, down from 2 trillion U.S. dollars in 2014, according to the IEA's World Energy Investment 2016 report. The new annual report provides a compre…

Report: Climate Change will leave only a handful of cities able to host the Olympics in 2084

Rising sea levels, extreme temperatures and soaring humidity could make it impossible for athletes to compete in many major cities around the world, study warns. Rising temperatures will radically limit the number of cities able to host the summer Olympics by 2084, according to a study by the University of California Berkeley (UC Berkeley), published last week in The Lancet. Just eight Northern Hemisphere cities outside of Europe will have a cool and stable enough climate to host the games in 70 years time, with just three cities in North America - San Francisco, Calgary and Vancouver - deemed suitable for hosting the Games in 2084. "Climate change could constrain the Olympics going forward," Kirk Smith, a professor of global environmental health in the School of Public Health at UC Berkeley, said in a statement. "And not just because of rising sea levels." The study focused on the Northern Hemisphere, which is home to nearly 90 per cent of the world's populatio…

Pacific Islands Nations Consider World’s First Treaty to Ban Fossil Fuels

Treaty under consideration by 14 countries would ban new coal mines and embraces 1.5C target set at Paris climate talks. The world's first international treaty that bans or phases out fossil fuels is being considered by leaders of developing Pacific islands nations after a summit in the Solomon Islands this week. The leaders of 14 countries agreed to consider a proposed Pacific climate treaty, which would bind signatories to targets for renewable energy and ban new or the expansion of coalmines, at the annual leaders' summit of the Pacific Islands Development Forum (PIDF). Related articles Mahendra Kumar, climate change advisor to PIDF, told the Guardian the treaty proposal was received very positively by the national leaders. "They seemed convinced that this is an avenue where the Pacific could again show or build on the moral and political leadership that they've shown earlier in their efforts to tackle climate change," he said. The PIDF was formed in 2013, s…

Our Real Carbon Footprint is Still Rising

Bioregional's Nicholas Schoon confronts the thorny issue of the UK's consumption-based footprint The UK's ‘real' carbon footprint -emissions of climate-changing gases caused by our consumption of goods and services - are rising, according to government figures published this week. Usually we think about UK carbon emissions in terms of tonnes of gas generated within our own island borders, chiefly from burning fossil fuels in cars, power stations, industrial plants, central heating boilers and so on. Related articles These ‘territorial' emissions have been falling for quarter century. They are the ones covered under the UK's carbon cutting targets and its world-leading Climate Change Act. Happy days. But the story of our other, ‘real' footprint - the consumption-based one - is not so happy. Between 2011 and 2013 emissions of these greenhouse gases rose by 4 per cent. Here are the two footprints, territorial and consumption-based, travelling through time together…