Top Stories
Millions in U.S. Drink Dirty Water, Records
Show.—reliability high.
"More than 20 percent of the nation's water treatment systems have
violated key provisions of the Safe Drinking Water Act over the last
five years, according to a New York Times analysis of federal data."
"Regulators were informed of each of those violations as they occurred.
But regulatory records show that fewer than 6 percent of the water
systems that broke the law were ever fined or punished by state or
federal officials" "The problem, say current and former government
officials, is that enforcing the Safe Drinking Water Act has not been a
federal priority." From
The New York Times.
Companies,
Industries, Markets and Supply Chains
SAP/CDP Tap iPhone's Popularity to Market
Emissions Data.—reliability high.
A new iPhone application from SAP and the Carbon Disclosure Project
illustrates an emerging way to access data and trends related to
climate change. "The app shows a visualized breakdown of a variety of
corporate emissions data." It's free at the app store.. See
Environmental Leader. More here.
Retailers Share Best Practices for Managing
Chemicals.—reliability high.
"A new report looks at six companies' product chemical management
systems, showing how they developed their systems, what challenges
they've faced and what benefits they've encountered." From
GreenBiz. Access report here.
AT&T Launches Council to Advance ICT's
Role in the Climate Fight.—reliability high.
"The Business Sustainability Advisory Council will build upon research
from the Climate Group that found technology can reduce up to five
times the greenhouse gas emissions that are produced by the ICT sector,
or up to 15 percent of global annual emissions by 2020. AT&T has
brought together a blend of public and private interests for the
council, including the Carbon Disclosure Project, Cisco Systems, The
Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, the University of
Colorado-Denver, and the University of Texas at Austin." See
GreenBiz.
Water Futures partnership; SABMiller and WWF
announce major global partnership on water risk.—reliability
high.
"SABMiller and WWF launched the Water Futures partnership, designed to
tackle water scarcity in a number of its key operating countries. The
partnership builds on existing best practice undertaken by SABMiller
and WWF in Colombia, Honduras and El Salvador and will build a detailed
understanding of the risks posed by the predicted water stress in Peru,
Tanzania, South Africa and Ukraine. Methodologies will then be
developed to help mitigate this risk." See
SABMiller Company Website.
Report: Top 12 Potentially Disruptive
Transport Technologies.—reliability medium.
"A new analysis from Accenture, Betting on Science; Disruptive
Technologies in Transport Fuels, identifies 12 technologies that have
the potential to be gamechangers, disrupting fossil fuel demand and
reversing course on the disastrous climate changing trajectory that we
are on. And, the report says, they could do it within five years" From
Green Options Media Gas 2.0. Access report summary here.
Government and
Regulation
What Do China's Climate Pledges Really Amount
To?.—reliability medium.
"China's latest pledge is a very big deal, says William Chandler,
Energy and Climate Program director at the Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace. At issue: Just what, exactly, is 'business as
usual' for the Chinese economy? Folks skeptical of Chinese plans point
to estimates by the International Energy Agency to argue that China is
essentially promising to keep doing what it is doing already—so it
shouldn't be seen as a game-changer ahead of Copenhagen. That is
'demonstrably false,' says Mr. Chandler. His argument: The Chinese
economy got less energy intensive since 2000, as heavy industry and
manufacturing caused a big jump in energy use. Only 'draconian'
measures in recent years have turned that tendency around and put China
on the path to a cleaner economy. So it's not fair to consider the
recent crackdown on energy use 'business as usual'" From
Wall Street Journal Environmental Capital blog.
Broadband will cut carbon by 5 per cent down
under: PM.—reliability high.
"Mr. Rudd said the reduction in travel costs made possible by the use
of telepresence video conferencing technology and the facilitation of
smart metering energy usage monitoring are two reasons why the
country's National Broadband Network (NBN) will be successful in
reducing the country's carbon emissions by an impressive five per
cent." See
TelecomTV.
[Crossposted from HaraBara.com courtesy of HaraBara, Inc. Copyright © 2009 HaraBara, Inc.]
