A funding round of $25 million was recently raised by Off-Grid Electric to grow its African micro-solar leasing efforts. The majority of the funds came from DBL Partners, though other investors included SolarCity, Western Technology Investment, Omidyar Network, Serious Change LP, and Vulcan Capital. Off-Grid’s new funding will be used in Rwanda and Tanzania to bring clean light sources to areas where there are …
Demand for Cooling is Rising Fast
The world faces a looming and potentially calamitous “cold crunch”, with demand for air conditioning and refrigeration growing so fast that it threatens to smash pledges and targets for global warming. From The Guardian UK. Worldwide power consumption for air conditioning alone is forecast to surge 33-fold by 2100 as developing world incomes rise and urbanisation advances. Already, the US …
GreenWave Charts Path from Commercial Fishing to Aquatic Agriculture, Starter Packages and Guaranteed Purchase of Products for 5 years
For the full article on GreenWave, which was selected from a pool of 400 entries representing work being done in 136 countries for a $100,000 award, see: http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2015/oct/22/greenwave-ocean-farming-bren-smith-fuller-challenge-sustainability-climate-change Prior to starting GreenWave, Smith worked a variety of commercial fishing jobs “all over the globe”, including long lining for McDonald’s in the Bering Sea and “sliming” in Alaska canneries. In his …
Juneau Considers Shift to 100% Clean Transportation, Makes Steps
Following is an excerpt from RMI’s E-Lab Accelerator. Read the full article at http://blog.rmi.org/blog_2015_10_20_driving_the_rain_electrifying_transportation_in_juneau_alaska Juneau—Alaska’s tiny capital with a population of 32,000—sits at the base of the Juneau Icefield, and the Mendenhall glacier. “The Glacier,” as it is known there, is an icon that draws hundreds of thousands of tourists from around the world. Unfortunately, it is melting at an alarming …
Canada Makes a Shift: New Administration Committed to Put a Price on Carbon, Boost Renewables, Cut Emissions
Former Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, and the Conservative Party were major proponents of the Tar Sands, pipelines, and climate apathy/denial, but they lost BIG yesterday and the Liberal party won equally big, defying what was considered great odds, to win. The Conservatives, who have governed for nine years, and the NDP were first going into the polls in the …
US lawmakers let Fortune 500 companies stash $2.1 trillion in offshore tax havens, avoiding $620 billion in taxes
America’s Fortune 500 companies are “playing by different rules” when it comes to the federal tax system and, according to a new report out Tuesday, are stashing $2.1 trillion in offshore tax havens—with as much as $620 billion owed to the U.S. taxpayers who are left footing the bill. The report, Offshore Shell Games 2015: The Use of Offshore Tax …
We are living in a nation in which the top one-tenth of 1 percent owns almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent. We are living in a world in which the top 1 percent owns almost as much wealth as the bottom 99 percent.
In a Comedy Central interview with Naomi Klein and Bernie Sanders on the Pope’s visit, Sanders said: “We are living in a nation in which the top one-tenth of 1 percent owns almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent. We are living in a world in which the top 1 percent owns almost as much wealth as the …
India commits to 40% renewables; 350 GW wind and solar; 35% less carbon intensity, all by 2030!
The huge challenge will be land, state ability to pay and funding! Meanwhile, an analysis by researchers at Climate Interactive, a group whose calculations are used by American negotiators and by numerous other governments, is expected to be released Monday and was provided in advance to The New York Times. It shows that the collective pledges would reduce the warming of the …
Actual indicators of modernization and societal trust in government are participation, transparency and efficiency of public administration
When I was a kid growing up in Brazil, all governments in Latin America were right-wing military dictatorships. Today they are all center-left wing democracies—seemingly representing extraordinary progress. However, socio-economic indicators and trust in government have hardly improved. In the most advanced democracies, discussion on whether a Government is right-wing or left-wing has become outdated. Instead, the actual indicators of …
Will Washington be the first US state to have a carbon tax?
Re-posted from the Christian Science Monitor Yoram Bauman is the world’s only “stand-up economist.” He makes his living poking fun at his own profession. But he’s dead serious about fighting climate change, and he’s the intellectual force behind a climate-related initiative that seems likely to appear on Washington state’s November 2016 ballot, an initiative that would implement the first carbon tax in …