Top Stories
U.S. could fall behind China in clean energy: Locke.—reliability high.
"The United States could fall behind China and other countries in clean energy technology unless Congress passes energy legislation, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said on Saturday. Many U.S. investors were reluctant to plough money into big solar, wind and other clean energy sectors until they knew what technologies U.S. government policy was going to favor, he said." Story at Reuters.
Attitudes in the international business community towards environmental regulation, legislation and taxes.—reliability high.
PricewaterhouseCoopers survey: "The majority of companies expect to have to make changes to the way they conduct business over the next 2-3 years" due to climate change issues. "Based on almost 700 interviews─conducted in 15 countries ─executives shared their views on the impact of climate change, their preferred environmental policy tools, the role of government in protecting the environment, and the ingredients necessary for a global climate change deal." More highlights and access to report. From PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Companies, Industries, Markets and Supply Chains
Duke Scouts China’s Energy Options as U.S. Climate Bill Stalls.—reliability high.
"Duke Energy Corp. is scouting for new clean-energy technologies in China after President Barack Obama’s bid to pass U.S. legislation curbing carbon emissions stalled, the company’s chief technology officer said. 'China is going to set the standard for development and deployment of clean energy,' David Mohler, a senior vice president at Duke, said in an interview May 21 in Beijing." From Bloomberg.
Britons want to buy sustainable fish but labels leave us baffled.—reliability high.
"Most British consumers want to buy sustainably sourced fish and seafood but are baffled by the varying labels and information they face from retailers, a consumer watchdog will warn this week. In a new report and survey, Which? says the UK's supermarkets – which dominate fish sales – need to do more to help consumers to understand how to shop ethically to protect the world's fast-diminishing stocks." See The Guardian. PDF of report here.
Report: Mitsubishi i-MiEV on sale in Hong Kong, priced at $50,000 U.S..—reliability medium.
"Effective immediately, residents of the former British colony of Hong Kong can officially purchase a Mitsubishi i-MiEV at the not-so-bargain-basement price of $50,000 (U.S. Dollars). We admit that the price seems quite high when you compare it with the Nissan Leaf's European price of $37,000 (USD), but then again, the Leaf is not available in Hong Kong, so the i-MiEV really has no direct competition." From Autoblog Green.
Government and Regulation
China, India Lead the Developing World in Green Building.—reliability medium.
"The developing world, particularly China and India, could soon be major players in the booming green building market, according to a report by cleantech market research firm Pike Research last week. ... What's different about the movement toward green building in China and India, however, is that local government-developed certification programs have been launched in tandem with the adoption of international standards." See Solveclimate blog.
New Zealand stands by carbon trading plans.—reliability high.
"New Zealand will go ahead with its proposed carbon trading scheme despite Australia abandoning its plan to price carbon last month, prime minister John Key said this morning. There had been reports in the press that the Key administration might follow Australia's lead and abandon its emissions trading legislation in the face of public opposition. But speaking in an interview on Television New Zealand earlier today, Key said there was "no chance" that the scheme would be postponed, pledging that it would be launched as planned from 1 July this year." From BusinessGreen.
Science and Economics
Debate heats up over climate impact on malaria spread.—reliability high.
A recent letter to Nature modeled climate change over the 20th century and compared it to incidence of malaria, finding the disease didn't increase as much as would have been predicted mainly because of greater control efforts. The author said, "if we were to go back to the 1900s with the correct climate change predictions for the 20th century, modellers would predict expansion and worsening of malaria and they would have been wrong, and we believe they are wrong now," "But Matthew Thomas, researcher at Pennsylvania State University, United States, said that the study "plays down the potential importance of climate [change]." See The Guardian. Abstract here. [From abstract:"Predictions of an intensification of malaria in a warmer world, based on extrapolated empirical relationships or biological mechanisms, must be set against a context of a century of warming that has seen marked global declines in the disease and a substantial weakening of the global correlation between malaria endemicity and climate." Translation: Mitigation works.]
[Crossposted from HaraBara.com courtesy of HaraBara, Inc. Copyright © 2010 HaraBara, Inc.]
