Climate Action - Assisting business towards carbon neutrality

IRELAND: country’s renewable energy share continues to grow  

MIDDLE EAST: Arab business leaders commit to reduce energy and water consumption

Business leaders from the Arab world have agreed on a staunch commitment to advance and adhere to the principles of environmental responsibility and cleaner production, and set a target to reduce the consumption of energy and water in their operations by 20 per cent by the year 2012.

This commitment was announced in a declaration issued at the end of the Corporate Environmental Responsibility Summit, which convened in Abu Dhabi on 29 November. The summit was attended by over 120 chief executives representing major business sectors from across the region.
Press release

USA: tax credit expiry endangers wind, solar expansion

(Reuters) Growth of a nascent industry to build and install clean energy sources, like windmills and solar cells, could be stunted if Congress doesn't extend tax incentives set to expire next year, industry officials and lawmakers said on Wednesday.
Full story

USA: energy efficient homes pay off for the environment

(CSRwire) New York residents and builders have significantly reduced the state's overall energy use and greenhouse gas emissions over the last six years simply by investing in homes that have earned the ENERGY STAR(R) Label.

Since 2001, more than 10,800 New York ENERGY STAR Labelled Homes have been built in New York, saving nearly 14 million kilowatt-hours of electricity and 603 billion BTUs of fossil fuel to date. The collective energy savings from these homes means that more than 44,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide is kept out of the atmosphere every year; the same as taking nearly 9,000 cars off the road for a year.
Press release

USA: new index tracks cleantech patents

(Businessgreen) Fuel cell technology, followed by wind and solar power, has topped a new measure of innovation in the US clean energy market. The Clean Energy Patent Growth Index produced by the Cleantech Group at intellectual property law firm Heslin Rothenberg Farley & Mesiti has shown that the largest number of patents granted has been for fuel cell innovations.
Full story

USA: big oil's negative drumbeat falling on deaf ears

(ENN) An overwhelming majority of consumers still believe the US is too dependent on foreign sources of oil.  A national survey commissioned by the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council (EPIC), finds that nearly a third of respondents indicated that their attitude toward ethanol has become more favorable over the last six months; 62 percent reported their opinions stayed the same.
Full story

USA: largest solar array in North America: Nellis AFB

USA: spin the metre backward: gold from green

(ENN) Net metering is a way to generate a company’s own energy from clean sources, such as solar power. And it is without the hassle of batteries and the convenience of not having to go "off the grid".
Full story

USA: San Francisco launches carbon offset programme

(Environmental Leader) Rather than funding replanting tree farms in other hemispheres or investing in alternative power systems on the other side of the planet, San Francisco has created the San Francisco Carbon Fund, a first-ever city-based carbon offset program that will fund local green activities such as energy efficiency projects and solar panel installations for low-income housing, as well as biodiesel conversion programmes that support the conversion of waste into fuel.
Full story