Skip to content
Grist home
All donations doubled!

Climate Technology

All Stories

  • Possible breakthrough: Indonesian palm oil giant pledges zero deforestation

    Oil palm concession in Indonesia. Photo: Hayden Potential good news for orangutans, tigers, and the climate: Indonesian palm oil giant Golden Agri-Resources (GAR), a subsidiary of all-round planet pulper Sinar Mas (palm oil, illegal logging, coal) is promising not to destroy forests and ultra carbon-rich peatlands for palm oil. Photo: Rhett A. Butler, MongaBayHere’s the […]

  • Behind the scenes in the big fight against coal

    Down with coal!The climate fight hasn’t been going well lately. The Copenhagen conference in Dec. 2009 seemed to mark the effective end of international efforts to control carbon. The U.S. Senate couldn’t even bring itself to vote on cap-and-trade last summer. In November, a GOP committed to climate denial won new strength in the Congress. […]

  • Why you don’t want gas to get cheaper

    Image: Grist Americans would like to pay less at the pump. But what would that take? How about another economic crash — or perhaps you’d prefer an ecological one. However the next century shakes out, one thing’s for sure: the ever-growing gap between world oil supplies and demand is making itself felt, and the longer […]

  • Are we in a ‘clean energy race’ with China?

    A popular line among climate hawks these days goes something like this: If the U.S. doesn’t support domestic clean energy, China will beat us in the clean energy race. The message has become quite popular lately, and indeed Obama said something very like it in his State of the Union, what with the “Sputnik Moment” […]

  • Are flesh-eating robots the future of green tech?

    Sure, you can get power from the sun and the wind and other things you could paint on the wall of a child’s bedroom — if you don’t mind being a hippy. But aren’t there any forms of alternative energy that are more, you know, metal? Enter James Auger and Jimmy Loizeau, British designers who […]

  • Industry voices support EPA action on Clean Air Act

    EPA standards can help business and drive innovation.Cross-posted from the World Resources Institute. This piece is written by senior associate James Bradbury. In the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center, I moderated a panel featuring representatives from businesses and public interest organizations: Paul Allen, senior vice president for corporate affairs and chief environmental officer at Constellation Energy, […]

  • Southern California Edison signs another big photovoltaic farm deal

    Solar farms could be sprouting in the Nevada desert.Photo: FotowatioSouthern California Edison on Wednesday announced another big photovoltaic power plant deal, this time to buy electricity from a 250-megawatt solar farm to be built by First Solar. Add that contract to 831 megawatts’ worth of photovoltaic power purchase agreements the Los Angeles utility signed with […]

  • Report: U.S. in fast lane to put 1 million electric cars on the road by 2015

    More like this are on the way.Photo: Dave Pinter When President Obama in his State of the Union address called for 1 million electric cars to be on the road by 2015, skeptics scoffed. But in a report [PDF] released Tuesday, the Department of Energy basically said no worries. We’ve already arrived at our destination. […]

  • Wind power now competitive with coal in some regions

    Photo: Vlasta JuricekMore good news on the renewable energy front Monday: The cost of onshore wind power has dropped to record lows, and in some regions is competitive with electricity generated by coal-fired plants, according to a survey by Bloomberg New Energy Finance, a market research firm. “The latest edition of our Wind Turbine Price […]

  • WH Gig for Mubarak

    White House climate policy czar Carol Browner recently left her post “to spend more time with her family” (political-speak for “thanks for playing, but don’t let the door hit you in the backside on your way out”). Given his 2008 campaign pledge to get Congress to deal with US carbon pollution and thereby support a […]