While the green building industry has been booming in the US and Europe for some time, other countries are taking note and beginning to innovate. Check out some of Climate Reality’s favorite green buildings.
After its monumental success in solar and wind energy sectors, China is now looking at increased pace of development in the geothermal power sector.
Internet behemoth Google has announced that it will reach 100% renewable energy for its entire global operations by 2017, including all its data centers and offices — meeting its original renewable energy targets well ahead of schedule.
After 4 legs and 30 hours of travel, a third of the Energy Excelerator team arrived in Marrakech, Morocco, for meetings in conjunction with the United Nations COP22 conference. Amongst many noteworthy conversations, Dr. Jonathan Pershing, lead climate negotiator for the US, shared 5 key perspectives on the Conference of the Parties (“COP”) process and his focus for the next 5 years.
Jobs in clean energy industries like solar, wind, geothermal and hydroelectric are increasing while jobs in oil, natural gas, and coal extraction are decreasing worldwide. About 8.1 million people worldwide had jobs in the clean energy in 2015. That’s up from 7.7 million in 2014, according to the latest figures from IRENA.
As of December 2015, there were more than 8,800 wind techs — guys who climb wind turbines to perform maintenance — and wind techs are the single fastest-growing job in America, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Following several months of intense negotiations and restructuring efforts such as the sale of many of its existing assets, the once-powerful SunEdison has apparently claimed that “there is a strong likelihood” that the company “will successfully reorganise.”
The mayors of 4 of the world’s largest cities — Paris, Madrid, Mexico City, and Athens — have publicly committed to banning all diesel vehicles from their jurisdictions by the year 2025. The announcements came at the recent C40 Mayors Summit in Mexico City, according to reports.
Billions of euros are being invested into Europe’s EV market. Most of the industry’s best known vehicles are available. The race to build the infrastructure, which can help make them the vehicle of choice, lags behind. Ford, Volkswagen Group, BMW Group, and Daimler are entering into the race with joint plans to develop 400 sites by 2020. However, Fastned has already built 55 stations throughout the Netherlands and, on December 1, announced the opening of Europe’s 1st “Urban Fast Charging Station” in The Hague, Holland, the Netherlands.
Energy and water conservation programs at the municipal, utility, and state levels come in many shapes and sizes. Some are effective, others less so, and predicting a program’s success seems an elusive mixture of art and science. Dr. Doug McKenzie Mohr, a behavioral scientist studying conservation programs for the last … [continued]
