Top Stories
"Vulnerable Arab world lags on climate change
action"—reliability high.
A United Nations Development Programme regional meeting portrayed the
Arab world as highly vulnerable to climate change, yet doing little to
address coming problems. According to this story, Mostafa Tolba, former
executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme, told
Reuters: "They are leaving entire generations who will wake up and find
a disaster on their hands that they will be completely unequipped to
handle." Mentions reduced water availability and rising sea levels.
From Reuters.
"Wal-Mart and H&M Commit to Greening
Their Textile Supply Chain"—reliability medium.
At the Clinton Global Initiative meeting, Walmart announced it would
work with Chinese textile manufacturers to embrace better industry
techniques, in cooperation with NRDC's "Clean by Design" program. NRDC
launched similar initiatives with H&M several days ago in Shanghai.
See NRDC
blog.
"Nonconventional power to light up 2,000
villages"—reliability high.
The Indian state of Orissa has provided electrification from solar
projects to 395 villages and plans to complete renewable supplies to
600 villages by the end of the year. It is applying to the central
government for support to electrify 1500 more villages by 2012 using
wind, biomass and other renewable technologies. Some projects will be
built with private participation. From ExpressBuzz.
Companies,
Industries, Markets and Supply Chains
UK offshore wind half of global capacity—reliability
high.
With the opening of the Thanet 300 MW offshore wind farm off Kent
Britain's total offshore capacity reached 1341 MW, more than half of
the world total of 2400 MW. The UK now gets about 9% of its electricity
from renewables, and hopes to reach 15% by 2020. Reuters
story.
"Project Aims to Publicly Track Corporate
Plastic Use"—reliability high.
"The Plastic Disclosure Project is taking a page from carbon and water
disclosure efforts by asking companies to report on their plastic use
and management plans. The project was launched at the Clinton Global
Initiative (CGI) annual meeting and is focused on reducing the amount
of plastic waste around the world." See GreenBiz.
"DuPont sees $1 bln solar market sales in
2010"—reliability high.
"DuPont Co now expects $1 billion in photovoltaic market sales this
year, up from a previous forecast to hit that mark in 2011, saying
interest for solar materials continues to spike." Quotes DuPont
spokesman Dan Turner: "No one can doubt the continued explosive growth
in the industry." DuPont sells a range of materials used to make solar
panels. From Reuters
article.
"Another food goliath falls to palm oil
campaign"—reliability medium.
Jeremy Hance posts: "One of the world's biggest food makers, General
Mills, has pledged to source only sustainable and responsible palm oil
within five years time. ... In a statement General Mills said they
planned 'to help ensure our purchases are not associated in any way
with deforestation of the world’s rainforests—and to further reinforce
the development of certified sustainable palm oil production
practices.' " The Rainforest Action Network claimed some credit, and
said it will now focus on agribusiness giant Cargill. See Mongabay.
"Staples Unveils Largest Solar Power System
in [Maryland]"—reliability high.
"Staples has unveiled a 1.5-megawatt (MW) solar power installation at
its distribution center in Hagerstown, Maryland. ... Staples has a
power purchase agreement with SunEdison that requires no capital
investment and no operating or maintenance expenses on the part of the
retailer. Under the agreement, SunEdison designs, finances, operates,
and maintains the solar installations and Staples buys the energy
produce at or below price for grid power." More on Staples' solar
energy. See Environmental
Leader.
Government and
Regulation
"Great Green Wall Rises, But Questions Remain"—reliability
high.
A look at China's massive afforestation efforts. "China already has
the largest human-made forest in the world, covering more than 500,000
square kilometres, and the Communist Party this year announced it had
reached its stated goal of 20 percent forest cover by 2010. The
government envisions a line of trees stretching 4,480 km from Xinjiang
province in the far west to Heilongjiang province in the east." Article
notes some of the accomplishments and also some of the doubts and
problems. From IPS.
[China is certainly
capable of doing things in a big way. But enormous projects of this
kind can have unintended consequences. Science is generally not capable
of accurately predicting the impacts of geoengineering. This is a leap
of faith on a grand scale. But at least everybody can chip in. Maybe
the social function is more important than the environmental benefits.]
"FERC chairman: Let EV owners sell juice to
grid"—reliability medium.
Martin LaMonica posts "Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)
Chairman Jon Wellinghoff today said electric-car owners could make as
much as $3,000 a year providing what are called ancillary services,
such as frequency regulation, to stabilize the wholesale electric
market. Those types of services are technically possible today but
regulations need to be changed and new businesses need to be formed
before EV owners are active sellers into the grid, Wellinghoff said.
But he predicted that within three to five years, vehicle-to-grid
services will be available throughout the U.S. 'There's a business
model question but beyond that, there are no other barriers,'
Wellinghoff said". At CNET News.
