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 […]
The Summit started in earnest yesterday. Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London, and Chair of the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, had some opening remarks, including these which are very direct indeed. (The C40 is in partnership with the Clinton Climate Initiative. I'll have more to say about President Clinton and the CCI in a later post.) In a separate […]
The C40 Large Cities Climate Summit kicked off on a gorgeous spring day today in the Big Apple. Thirty-two mayors are here with their delegations. There are 46 cities represented, from six continents. There's been considerable press on this, a couple of hundred by Google's count, including this from Reuters "London mayor says cities lead […]
Bonn – The UNFCC has big meetings going on now in Bonn. The scientific and technological advice wizards as well as the policy wonks, aka the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI), have been hard at work since May 7. There are 2,000 participants from governments, business and industry, environmental organizations and research institutions. Next week, […]
I touched on hydrogen vehicles in my post from April 30. I noted a comparison in the “NY Times” of several approaches. Here’s a video. Well, I was at the Tribeca Film Festival’s concluding street fair on Saturday and GM had some vehicles on display. I talked a bit with Raj Choudhury, a project manager […]
Since billions of people live in cities, with more coming every day, the infrastructure needed to support them needs building, rebuilding and rehabilitation, expansion and enhancement. There's power generation and transmission, the delivery of drinking water and the treatment of waste water, housing and parks, schools and hospitals, transportation, and commercial and industrial development. All […]
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), as I write, is finalizing its report, "Mitigation of Climate Change." (You can watch the webcast of the press conference from Bangkok when it goes online on Friday, and read the summary for policymakers and the speech from the IPCC's head.) There will be a ton of news […]
See my colleague Cassandra Clifford's recent two articles on Children and Climate Change. These, along with the rest of her material, are hard hitting. Start here.
I talked about the depth and the intensity of the activity on renewable energy these days in my post from April 5. Here are some notes from recent news stories and elsewhere that highlight this theme. PepsiCo , "PepsiCo makes big renewable energy buy" reads the headline from BusinessWeek. "The company's three-year purchase is made […]
I talked about the carbon market, and others, in the post from April 19 aptly named Markets. There's a pretty big event coming up next week in Cologne: Carbon Expo. This is billed as a "Global Carbon Market Fair and Conference." It runs from May 2 to 4. One of the keynote speakers is the […]
Not having seen this program, I am making no judgements. However, I have found Frontline to be consistently informative and to the highest journalistic standards. ************ “FRONTLINE and the Center for Investigative Reporting go behind the scenes to explore how bi-partisan political and economic forces prevented the U.S. government from confronting what may be one […]
Mike Bloomberg is a billionaire (see Forbes) and the mayor of the biggest city in the United States. He's in his second term of office , NYC has a term limit of two for municipal office , and he's come out with a very bold, far-reaching plan, PLANYC, for "A Greener, Greater New York." He […]
There were a number of developments this past week worth noting. Here’s a rundown: U.N. Security Council – On Tuesday, Britain, holding the rotating presidency of the Security Council, brought the issue of climate change forward. (See this from “The International Herald Tribune” and this from the BBC.) The U.K.’s Foreign Secretary, Margaret Beckett, for five […]
I went to a hugely informative event yesterday. It focused on the "carbon markets" and was organized by the non-profit Ecosystem Marketplace. The symposium was also geared as a promotional event for their new book: Voluntary Carbon Markets: A Business Guide to What They Are and How They Work. What's a carbon market you ask? […]