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Hott policy primer

Sightline has a new report out: “Cap and Trade 101: A Climate Policy Primer.” It’s a plainspoken introduction that explains: • The cap, the trade: How cap and trade works • How to evaluate the efficiency, effectiveness, and fairness of a cap and trade system • What about offsets? • What happens to energy prices […]

U.S. biz waiting for regulation before cutting emissions, report shows

Only about one-third of leading U.S. companies have set targets to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, compared to 74 percent of global corporations, says the sixth annual report from the Carbon Disclosure Project. CDP, an influential initiative backed by 385 institutional investors, received input from 64 percent of the Standard & Poor’s 500 U.S. companies (a jump […]

Credit crunch could take shine off efficiency improvements

I previously noted that the financial crisis is likely to be very bad news for renewable energy developers dependent upon access to credit for their cash-hungry projects. Geoffrey Styles points out that a credit crunch will also affect consumer-driven efficiency improvements: If consumers can’t obtain attractive financing for more efficient appliances, heating systems, or rooftop […]

50 most sustainable cities

SustainLane’s annual ranking of the sustainability of America’s 50 largest cities is out. Grist is happy to be located in No. 3 overall, No. 2 in knowledge base, No. 2 in energy and climate change, No. 2 in green economy, and No. 3 in city innovation. There’s no margin in being No. 1 — draws […]

How would a green recovery help your state?

My post on the Bush bailout for the financial sector mentioned the “Green Recovery” report recently released by the Center for American Progress and Dr. Robert Pollin from the University of Massachusetts Political Economy Research Institute. Here’s a little more detail: The report looks at how a $100 billion strategic investment can generate 2 million […]

A review of Tom Friedman’s Hot, Flat, and Crowded

I have a book review in the latest issue of the American Prospect, covering three books: Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution — and How It Can Renew America, by Thomas L. Friedman Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 438 pages, $27.95 Earth: The Sequel: The Race To Reinvent Energy and Stop Global […]

Al Gore, Wangari Maathai urge U.N. to tackle deforestation in next climate treaty

Nobel Peace Prize winners Al Gore and Wangari Maathai urged United Nations countries on Monday to pay special attention to tropical deforestation in their next international climate treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol. Preserving forests, they said, will help local communities, fight poverty, and may substantially slow global warming since deforestation accounts for about one-fifth […]

The financial sector and the ‘real economy’ aren’t that far removed

Sean has done an estimable job knocking down some of the more piqued reactions to the financial bailout in comments, but this really is a topic that deserves above-the-fold treatment. The crisis raises a host of big-picture questions about the proper role of oversight in the financial industry, but wherever the blame for the current […]

Milwaukee’s Growing Power founder snags a much-deserved MacArthur

Fifteen years ago, a former professional basketball player named Will Allen made a most unlikely career move: he decided to launch a farm in a low-income neighborhood in Milwaukee. His farmhands would be un- or ill-employed neighborhood teens. Will Allen. At the time, brutal economic conditions were pushing the nation’s few remaining African-American farmers into […]

Many of world’s common birds are taking a population dive

Some of the world’s most common bird species have suffered big population declines in the last few decades due to habitat loss, invasive species, industrial agriculture, and logging, says a new report from BirdLife International. The report found that in the last 25 years, some 45 percent of Europe’s common bird species have been in […]