Top Stories
After COP 15, What’s the Outlook for
Business?—reliability high.
"The agreement puts business leaders in the uncomfortable position of
not knowing how environmental policy will force decisions about the
costs of doing business, reports the Wall Street Journal." "For
corporate sustainability leaders, the lack of a binding agreement means
that multinational firms should update their climate change and
sustainability strategies, according to a report from Verdantix,
'Business Implications of the Copenhagen Accord.'" Highlights of
report. From
Environmental Leader. WSJ story here.
Verdantix executive summary here.
Climate Chaos: Is There a Silver Lining to
the Copenhagen Fiasco?—reliability medium.
"One of the early and overwhelming conclusions in the wake of the
'Copenhagen Accord' is that the United Nations process for reaching
agreement on climate change is broken." "Indeed, it’s not clear whether
the summit’s conclusion underscores the need to ditch the existing UN
framework or whether that framework has already been scuttled." More
comments on direction process might go. From
Wall Street Journal Environmental Capital blog.
Better than nothing.—reliability
high.
"EVEN its biggest fans—if such people exist—would be hard-put to find
the Copenhagen Accord on the climate a rousing success. "Many," admits
Ban Ki-moon, "will say it lacks ambition." Despite the emotional
support and demands of tens of thousands of activists gathered in the
Danish capital, expectations of the UN climate conference among
participants were not so high that they were hard to meet. But the
accord put together on Saturday December 19th by an informal grouping
of countries, including America, China, India and South Africa, barely
made it over, and was only incorporated into the conference's
conclusions after a tense all-night session." See
The Economist.
Companies,
Industries, Markets and Supply Chains
Sony Ericsson Unveils Latest GreenHeart
Phones.—reliability high.
"Sony Ericsson is adding two phones and a handsfree headset to its
GreenHeart line of products with lowered environmental impacts. The
company's GreenHeart initiative, begun in mid-2007, brings together the
major green efforts that Sony Ericsson has taken up to lower its
products' resource and energy use." More on the phones. See
GreenBiz.
Carbon Permits Tumble After 'Modest' Climate
Deal.—reliability high.
"European and United Nations carbon prices fell the most since
February after the Copenhagen climate accord didn't set targets that
would boost demand for permits." More on markets' reaction. From
Bloomberg.
S. Korean manufacturing firms to commit
$3.4B to cleantech in 2010.—reliability high.
"South Korean manufacturing companies are expected to commit more than
4 trillion won ($3.42 billion) to cleantech in 2010, according to
Thomson Reuters today, citing new data from the Korean
government. The investment would be an increase from this year’s
3.2 trillion won." From
Cleantech Group.
Jackson Family Wines to Cut Water Use 70% by
Recycling.—reliability high.
"Jackson Family Wines is introducing the wine industry to a new era in
winery water recycling and energy-use reduction that, if adopted by
even 35% of California wineries, could result in conserving as much as
one billion gallons of water annually." More about the technology
Jackson has tested. See
GreenBiz.
IBM to Smarten up Australian Grid.—reliability
high.
"The Western Australian city of Perth is to become the latest to roll
out smart technologies after energy firm Western Power yesterday signed
a major deal with IBM to install smart grid systems across the city.
The project will involve the rollout of smart meters to all homes in
the city and surrounding area and the installation of a communications
infrastructure to transfer energy usage information." Open-standard
smart grid. From
GreenBiz.
[Crossposted from HaraBara.com courtesy of HaraBara, Inc. Copyright © 2009 HaraBara, Inc.]
