CleanTechnica

In an attempt to step up pressure on the developing countries to take up ambitious emissions reductions and forcing them to move to renewable energy sources for power generation, a high ranking US official has written to the World Bank recommending it to stop financing coal-fired plants in the developing countries.

In a letter written to the World Bank, the United States Executive Director at the World Bank Group, Whitney Debevoise said that multilateral development banks like the World Bank have the responsibility of building a financing framework that ensures mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions and strengthens the developing countries economies against climate change. Read the rest of this entry »

In a fortuitous discovery, chemists have stumbled on a catalyst that strips carbon dioxide from the air and converts it into a useful compound.

Published in the most recent issue of the journal Science (sub. req’d.), researchers at Leiden University in the Netherlands have discovered a copper-based catalyst that can literally pull carbon dioxide out of thin air.

Researchers say the copper-based compound is not ready for primetime–removing carbon dioxide on a large scale–but they hope that the catalyst could one day remove the ubiquitous greenhouse gas from the atmosphere, turning it into organic chemicals. Read the rest of this entry »

The deadline for agreeing to the Copenhagen Accord may have been dropped, but the pressure to agree to the Accord and to announce commitments to create cleaner energy sources and reduce pollution is still on.

The US Climate Action Network (USCAN) is making it easier for all of us to follow all of the countries’ commitments through a useful chart of their pledges, how their 2020 targets compare to their 1990 pollution levels, their per capita CO₂ emissions, and other information.

The chart also lists those countries which reject the Copenhagen Accord.

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31st January was the deadline for countries to submit their proposals for reducing carbon emissions, however, only a handful of countries have submit proposals and officially agreed to the terms of the Copenhagen Accord which has led the United Nations to drop the deadline.

The major players in the climate change fray like India, China and the United States, are yet to come up with proposals and national mechanisms for reducing their carbon emissions. Only Brazil, Japan and the European Union have announced their plans to go ahead with emission reduction measures irrespective of the outcome of future climate treaty negotiations. Read the rest of this entry »

Yowzers – according to the U.S. EPA, about four billion, yes billion pounds of carpet go into the waste stream every year – much of it is used, some is new carpet left over from building construction.  A lot of that carpet (and carpet backing) is made of cheap, durable polypropylene fiber, which makes up about 80% of the sales for commercial carpet.

Polypropylene, aka olefin, may be familiar to recycling addicts through its #5 plastic recycling designation, a number that can spell trouble.  Until now, recyclers have been slow to adopt #5, partly due to the expense of separating it from other materials.  Used polypropylene carpets on the other hand offer good potential for cost effective processing due to their sheer bulk and availability.

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Joint New Zealand-U.S. project begins harvesting steady Antarctic winds on Ross Island.

Besides the heavy snow, unrelenting wind, and bone-chilling temperatures, what’s the most difficult part of building a wind farm in Antarctica? The lack of daylight in the winter means construction can only take place in the summer months. And with only one supply ship a year, you better not forget any parts.

On Saturday, the $7.4-million Ross Island Wind Farm in Antarctica began feeding electricity at full power for the very first time. The new wind farm can generate up to one megawatt of electricity and will cut diesel use at New Zealand’s Scott Base and the U.S.’ McMurdo Station by 120,000 gallons and reduce carbon dioxide output by 1,370 tons annually, according to New Zealand’s state-owned Meridian Energy, the project’s developers. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s like finding money on the street: the average tire contains the same energy as seven gallons of oil, and it has a heat content up to 16% higher than coal.  That’s one reason why tire recycling is starting to catch on in a big way.   It’s finally starting to put a dent in the notorious tire dumps in the U.S., many which are illegal.

Large scale tire recycling mainly consists of chipping or crumbing the tire so the rubber can be used in highway surfaces, or burned to provide power for manufacturing.  Whole tires are also used in civil engineering projects.  But the future of tire recycling may belong to a slew of companies that are coming up with new ways to recover more valuable resources from the mountains of “black gold” that dot the U.S. landscape.

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This is one I haven’t seen floating around yet. Personal carbon credits.

A new website helps you to cash-in on reducing your carbon emissions through home solar panels, wind turbines, more energy efficiency, etc. And it is up and running.

You reduce your home energy usage, report it to them, and get money back on PayPal.

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Pitchers and catchers don’t report for spring training until February 18 but the Minnesota Twins are already getting a jump on the 2010 baseball season by installing a huge new rainwater harvesting and recycling system at the team’s new home, Target Field.

The new Rain Water Recycle System was designed by by Minneapolis-based Pentair, a global water innovator.  Using a gigantic underground water storage tank the size of a freight car, the team aims to save more than two million gallons of water yearly – and that’s all part of a bigger sustainable plan for Target Field.

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Even as more states put e-waste laws into effect, a legal challenge to New York City’s law is raising issues about their future.  E-waste laws are just one example of a growing U.S. movement toward extended producer responsibility (EPR). Nineteen states and New York City have passed electronics EPR laws that require electronics manufactures to pay for and facilitate collection and recycling of their products at the end of consumer use.

But the Consumers Electronic Association (CEA) and the Information Technology Industry Council (ITIC) have sued to block New York City’s law because of a feature requiring door-to-door collection of the waste products. Manufacturers must provide such an option for city residents disposing of electronic devices heavier than 15 pounds. Read the rest of this entry »