IEA Proposes Ways to Decarbonize Power & Cut Energy Intensity in Industry
Thursday, October 1st, 2009From the International Energy Agency (IEA): IEA proposes approaches to curb greenhouse gas emissions in the key sectors, industry and power “In the global fight against climate change, the industry and power sectors both play a key role,” said Nobuo Tanaka, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency (IEA) today in Paris. “Industry is one […]
Estimating the Cost of Climate Risks for Developing Countries
Monday, September 14th, 2009From the Global Environment Facility (GEF): Climate Change Risks could cost Developing countries up to 19% of GDP by 2030 Report says action on climate adaptation may significantly reduce losses and increase economic sustainability. A report from the Economics of Climate Adaptation Working Group released today indicates that climate risks could cost nations up to […]
Latin America’s First Hydrogen Bus
Wednesday, July 1st, 2009Brazil is known for many “green” experiments and firsts in transportation. Think of Curitiba’s groundbreaking work on bus rapid transit, Brazil’s pioneering work on sugarcane ethanol and use of flex-fuel vehicles, the country’s aggressive biodiesel program, Vale’s trains run on biodiesel, Itaipu’s development of electric cars that can be charged from biodigestors, and the use […]
The Status of Global Renewables
Saturday, May 16th, 2009The Vienna, Austria-based Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century (REN21) has just released its latest review of the global state of adoption of renewable energy sources — solar (both photovoltaics and passive systems, such as solar water heaters), wind, geothermal, wave, biofuels and small hydro (REN21 excludes large hydropower projects from its review). […]
LAC Projects Receive 2009 SEED Award
Wednesday, May 13th, 2009This year’s recipients of the SEED Awards were announced yesterday by the SEED Initiative at a reception linked to this year’s session of the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD), and several of the recipients were from Latin America. What is the SEED Award and who is the SEED Initiative? you ask. The Initiative was […]
The 7th Round of REEEP Projects and LAC
Thursday, May 7th, 2009The Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP) recently announced that in its seventh funding round it will fund 49 new clean energy projects in 25 countries, including 12 involving nations in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). REEEP is “an active, global public-private partnership that structures policy and regulatory initiatives for clean energy, and facilitates financing for […]
Brazil a Leader in Green IT?
Sunday, April 12th, 2009I ran across this interesting “green IT” study released last month by IBM and the Info-Tech Research Group during the course of my work on a chapter on power management issues for a forthcoming book on green IT (information technology). Info-tech surveyed more than 1,000 IT executives at companies with 100-1,000 employees in 12 nations […]
FAO: Bioenergy Can Benefit Rural Poor / La bioenergía puede beneficiar a los pobres rurales
Wednesday, April 8th, 2009The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has released a study showing that bioenergy projects can benefit the rural poor. The study looks at 15 case studies in 12 nations in six regions of Africa, Asia and Latin America to examine the impacts that different types of local level Bioenergy initiatives can have on rural […]
Brazil Plans to Ban or Restrict 12 Pesticides
Thursday, April 2nd, 2009Brazilian health officials are concerned. In 2008 Brazil became the largest consumer of pesticides in the world, surpassing the US with a market of more than US$7 billion. Yet many of the pesticides now manufactured in, or imported into, Brazil and widely used there have been banned or severely restricted for health and environmental reasons […]
Finally, a Chance for a Global Mercury Accord / Por fin, un chance para un acuerdo global sobre el mercurio
Saturday, February 21st, 2009When the UN Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Governing Council (GC) considered and agreed on the draft decision on chemicals management, including mercury, this past Thursday, I was in the room. It’s difficult to say which emotion filled the conference room more — joy or excitement. There was plenty of both. This decision had been many years […]
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