Top Stories
U.S. Speeding Up 'Green' Patent Process.—reliability
high.
"A new pilot program from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office seeks to
fast-track the review of 'green' technology patents, a time-consuming
process that often takes about 40 months under the current system. The
new system is expected to take about 12 months off the process,
according to the Wall Street Journal." "The first 3,000 'green' patent
applications to be filed will be eligible for the new system, along
with about 25,000 applications already in the pipeline, reports CNET." From
Environmental Leader.
Climate Deal Likely to Bear Big Price Tag.—reliability
high.
"So what is all this [mitigation and adaptation] going to cost? The
short answer is trillions of dollars over the next few decades. It is a
significant sum but a relatively small fraction of the world’s total
economic output. In energy infrastructure alone, the transformational
ambitions that delegates to the United Nations climate change
conference are expected to set in the coming days will cost more than
$10 trillion in additional investment from 2010 to 2030, according to a
new estimate from the International Energy Agency." More on costs, how
they net out with savings, and how they will be borne. See
The New York Times.
UK Report: Just 30% of Carbon Offset Dollars
Spent on Emissions Reduction.—reliability high.
An analysis by Carbon Retirement using data from CDM projects estimates
that only about 30% of what is spent by consumers for carbon offsets
generated by such projects actually goes for project capital and
operating expenses, the part that actually reduces emissions or
captures carbon. Another 30% goes to the investor who "buys credits
that are not yet delivered (primary CERs or pCERs) and takes on the
risk that the project may fail to deliver sCERs". The rest goes to
consulting, administrative costs, other profits along the value chain,
and taxes. Note that Carbon Retirement offers competing products to CDM
carbon offsets. See
Environmental Leader. Access report here.
Companies,
Industries, Markets and Supply Chains
AT&T and Silver Spring Hook Up Over the
Smart Grid.—reliability medium.
AT&T and Silver Spring Networks announced a deal for Silver Spring
use AT&T’s 3G network to connect its smart grid gear to utility
back offices. From
earth2tech. AT&T press release here.
New startup Locust could crush traditional
data storage.—reliability high.
Locust Storage has developed data storage technology that draws "only 5
to 10 percent of the power that traditional systems demand." The
technology combines solid state and on-demand disk storage. "Georgion
estimates that a medium sized data storage facility could save 400
kilowatts of steady load by switching entirely to his Locust drives,
which last years longer than competing technologies. Since they operate
partly in the solid state and are only generating heat when data is
accessed (as opposed to full-time) HVAC requirements would be
substantially lower as well." See
GreenBeat.
How the world's largest meat processor
slashed its carbon footprint.—reliability high.
"At Danish Crown, being environmentally efficient is king not just
because of the consumer and regulatory demands to do so, but because
the cost savings from being green are so great." "In the quest for
complete environmental accountability, Danish Crown has put the
equivalent of an environmental price tag on each pig slaughtered, which
gives the company a benchmark to continue driving down emissions and
waste. Greenhouse emissions mapping has enabled Danish Crown to
calculate that each pork chop has a climate change impact of 360 grams
of CO2 equivalent." "Most of the greenhouse gases stem from feedstuffs
production, farm buildings and manure." More facts and figures. See
Queensland Country Life.
Reusing Old Equipment Saves Cisco $153
Million.—reliability high.
"A global closed-loop reverse supply chain has enabled Cisco to collect
nearly 24 million pounds of returned electronic equipment, more than 99
percent of which was recycled or reused. The networking giant offers a
discount on new products in exchange for returned equipment.
Redeploying that unwanted equipment saved Cisco $153 million in fiscal
2009" according to its new CSR report. More on CSR results. From
GreenBiz.
Government and
Regulation
South Africa Commits to Global Warming
Reductions.—reliability medium.
South Africa has joined India and China by saying they can reduce the
rate of increase of their GHG emissions below earlier projections. They
"proposed that they would cut their emissions by 34% below projected
levels in 2020 and by 42% below in 2025." They said "This level of
effort enables South Africa's emissions to peak between 2020 and 2025,
plateau for approximately a decade and decline in absolute terms
thereafter." From
NRDC blog.
[Crossposted from HaraBara.com courtesy of HaraBara, Inc. Copyright © 2009 HaraBara, Inc.]
