Climate Technology

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  • Why should policymakers, investors, and businesspeople care about youth in Copenhagen?

    Of the estimated 20,000 people converging on the U.N. climate conference this week and next, half of them are expected to be under the age of 30. My colleague in Copenhagen, Kristina Haddad, reports, “I observed that many in the crowds of people were young. Most were wearing t-shirts or passing out flyers that essentially […]

    Terry Tamminen Technology

  • Is Wal-Mart the future of local food?

    Local food gets the Wal-Mart treatment. One of the most important historic developments in the food economy is embodied in this statistic: in 1900, 40 percent of every dollar spent on food went to the farmer or rancher while the rest was split between inputs and distribution. Now? 7 cents on the dollar goes to […]

    Tom Laskawy Technology

  • International Chamber of Commerce: ‘We’re not with stupid’

    COPENHAGEN — There is numbingly little news coming out of most of the 20 or so daily press briefings at the Copenhagen climate talks. Officials from national delegations and research, policy, and trade groups seem to use them to restate their already-known positions, wrapping them in as much jargon as possible just to be safe. […]

    Jonathan Hiskes Technology

  • View from Copenhagen: The Zero Sum Game

    The deal being discussed in Denmark right now, in the name of climate change, is actually a framework for truth in advertising on a global economic scale. Think FASB on steroids. For example, we spend about three bucks for a gallon of gasoline in the US. In fact, we spend about ten, because of the […]

    Terry Tamminen Technology

  • A new world order: Automakers and Copenhagen

    As world leaders meet in Copenhagen to seek consensus on ways to reduce carbon emissions, the world’s automakers are on the doorstep of a revolutionary change in how the vehicles we all depend on are designed and powered. From batteries, to plug-in hybrids, to next generation biofuels, clean diesels and hydrogen powered autos, to dramatic improvements in old combustion […]

    Dave McCurdy Technology

  • The economics of renewable energy certificates

    Tom Stoddard, cofounder of carbon offset firm NativeEnergy, sent along the following response to a recent blog post by Auden Schendler: Auden: In your post entitled “Why Buying Cheap Energy Certificates Worsens Climate Change,” you take the position people shouldn’t buy what are now relatively inexpensive renewable energy certificates (RECs) because $2 per megawatt hour […]

    Grist staff Technology

  • Grist correspondent heads to Copenhagen, looks forward to pickled herring

    Copenhagen’s Little Mermaid statue, inspired by the Danish writer Hans Christian Anderson.Photo: julienponsI’m off to Copenhagen today, to spend 16 days sampling various pickled fish, shopping at the Christmas market, and, if there’s time, checking out some environment conference thing I’ve been hearing about. Seriously, I’ll be reporting on the climate talks, with a focus […]

    Jonathan Hiskes Technology

  • You don’t have to be big to go green

    Greening Your Small Business is a new book out this month by Jennifer Kaplan, a partner in Greenhance, a Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm working with large and small businesses to gain better insight into their impact on the environment. She also teaches at Marymount University’s business school in Arlington, Va. Courtesy Jennifer KaplanI talked to […]

    Sharon McLoone Technology

  • EPA punts on raising ethanol ‘blend wall’

    I have been following the Great Ethanol Blend Wall fight for some time. In a nutshell, ethanol companies have been struggling mightily during the recession. In response, industry group Growth Energy petitioned the EPA to allow gasoline to contain up to 15 percent ethanol rather than the current 10 percent. This demand also had the […]

    Tom Laskawy Technology

  • December 19 — the day after COP15

    Tens of thousands of modern-day crusaders, charlatans, Nobel laureates, CEOs, quick-buck artists, earnest politicians, and assorted movie extras of every conceivable socio-political-ethnic-economic background will descend on Copenhagen for the next three weeks to participate in an orgy of carbon-bashing and flag-waving. The goal will be to agree on a blueprint — not quite the precise […]

    Terry Tamminen Technology