Water Agencies Seek Inclusion in Climate Legislation
For some time we have been hearing about changing precipitation patterns, rising sea levels, and other various ways that climate change will severely impact our nation’s hydrologic systems. In the debate over climate legislation water groups are advocating for congressional funds to assist with mitigating the effects on water supplies of a changing climate. Although water groups are pleased to have been included in funding proposed in the most recent version of Lieberman-Warner, the amendment offered up by Senator Boxer is not specific about what portion of the $136 billion in funding that drinking, waste, storm-water utilities would be eligible for under the energy block grant program. In the last few weeks, water groups have stepped up their efforts and sent letters to Senator Boxer and Congress pushing for assistance and inclusion in a cap and trade program.
Continue Reading...The US Green Building Movement - Green Means Go
As energy costs continue to soar to unprecedented levels, it appears that a critical threshold has finally been crossed in the US green building movement. Over the past several years, the “greening” of commercial real estate has started transitioning from a socially responsible peripheral issue into a business necessity for many commercial real estate players. Since 2000 (the year that LEED-NC (new construction) was adopted), the number of new green building projects has been growing at a compounded annual growth rate of 50 percent to 100 percent. In 2006, the number of projects achieving LEED-NC certification was almost 20 times the number that were certified during 2000 and 2001 combined. Approximately 50 percent of the aggregate building area of all LEED certified buildings in the US was certified during 2006 and the first half of 2007.
What has caused the acceleration of the green building momentum in the US? Primarily three factors:
(i) user demand,
(ii) government requirements and incentives, and
(iii) increased savings/reduced costs.
Continue Reading...International Adaptation Assistance - the Dark Side of the Climate Debate
We have shared views in an earlier blog on climate adaptation, but recent discussion of responsibility for the overall global impacts of climate change leads us to return to the subject. For some time it has been clear that great care needs to be taken in how greenhouse gas reduction responsibilities are assigned to developing nations. They do not want to be denied the blessings of development in order to counter global warming created by the economies of the developed world over the past decades.
Now, a second major issue has surfaced. The developing world is going to need adaptation assistance – upwards of an initial $100 billion – as it experiences actual injuries from the changing climate. The issue is kicking up a lot of sand recently.
Continue Reading...Climate Change Compliance as a Business Opportunity
A great deal of attention is being paid to the development of multilateral and national accords and legislation designed to compel private industry to reduce carbon emissions. The key assumption underlying these efforts seems to hold that private industry worldwide cannot be counted on to initiate or facilitate carbon emissions reductions voluntarily, and certainly not as part of a preferred business model. But suppose for a moment that this assumption is not entirely correct, that private industry is in fact ready to start embracing climate change as a function of its own self-interest. The implications of such a trend could be far reaching.
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