Danish power company and offshore wind giant Ørsted announced Tuesday that it would consolidate two of its business units, Customer Solutions and Bioenergy, in the wake of various decisions which have reduced the two businesses in size. The new business unit, Markets & Bioenergy, is the result of several decisions made by the company in
Ørsted Cancels Divestment Of Power Distribution & Residential Customer Businesses Under Government Pressure A day after Danish energy company Ørsted announced that the Danish Ministry of Finance had raised concerns with the company’s plans to divest its Danish power distribution and residential customer businesses, the company has announced that it has discontinued the structured divestment
Coffee-drinkers rejoice! Coffee giant Nespresso has this week signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Anglo-Australian metals and mining megalith Rio Tinto to use the world’s first responsibly-sourced aluminum for its coffee pods.
The European Union has this week formally adopted Member States’ annual greenhouse gas emission reduction targets for 2021 to 2030 which, though they differ by country, will deliver a 30% reduction in EU emissions on 2005 levels across a wide variety of industries.
One of the world’s largest insurers, Allianz, has announced it will immediately cease insuring single coal-fired power plants and coal mines and further plans to phase out all coal risks by 2040.
Climate action non-profit The Climate Group this week unveiled its new Under2 Policy Action Map, an interactive tool which illustrates the numerous successful climate-related policies being implemented by subnational governments around the world which are part of the Under2 Coalition.
Seven Member States from the European Union have called on the EU and other Member States to align their long-term climate ambition with the objectives of the Paris Climate Agreement.
Wells Fargo, one of the top 3 banks in the US, announced on Thursday its intention to commit $200 billion in financing towards sustainable businesses and projects by 2030 — targeting at least 50% towards clean technologies.
Leading Indian and Southeast Asia business group Everstone Group has partnered with leading global renewable energy company Lightsource BP to form EverSource Capital, a fund management platform intended to support green energy infrastructure in India, with financial kickoff support from the UK Government and India’s National Investment and Infrastructure Fund.
America’s largest brewing company, Anheuser-Busch, launched its US 2025 Sustainability Goals this week, recommitting to its goal of purchasing 100% of its electricity from renewable energy sources by 2025 and committing itself to the sustainability goals launched in March by its parent company, AB InBev.
More than 100 companies around the world have had their emissions reductions targets approved by the Science-Based Targets initiative, which helps companies align their targets with what climate science confirms is necessary and required to prevent dangerous global warming.
A new journal article has shown that the 1.5°C target set out in the Paris Climate Agreement can be achieved with less negative emissions efforts than is often assumed, relying instead on increased renewable energy capacity, a reduction in methane emissions, and a greater focus on widespread lifestyle changes (read: less meat).
More than 200 US environmental groups from across the country have signed a letter to senators urging the rejection of the nomination of Mike Pompeo for Secretary of State, citing his long history of climate change denial and “extreme anti-environment, anti-consumer safety agenda.”
Danish wind energy giant Vestas has announced its intention to acquire leading energy analytics and digital solutions company Utopus Insights in a move expected to be worth $100 million.
A day after T-Mobile US announced its commitment to 100% renewable electricity by 2021, the company’s CEO and president John Legere has committed $500,000 to a non-profit dedicated to advancing clean energy initiatives and promised that, if AT&T or Verizon join in the commitment, it will double or triple its original commitment.
Over the last 12 months of activity, the Under2 Coalition has grown its members to encompass 205 governments from around the world, representing 1.3 billion people and almost 40% of the global economy, and all of them have committed to reducing greenhouse gasses by 2050.
CDP has awarded 58 companies the title of “Supplier Engagement” leader as an acknowledgement of their climate leadership and approach to tackling the reduction of emissions in the supply chain.
Schroders Climate Progress Dashboard has highlighted the fact that, despite headway made by the oil and gas industries, a drop in clean energy investment means we are still overshooting efforts to reduce global warming to 2°C.
Pointing to growing nuclear risks and rampant climate dangers, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has moved the Doomsday Clock 30 seconds closer to midnight — the closest it has been since 1953 at the height of the Cold War.
A new analysis of agricultural emissions published this week by Climate Action Tracker has pointed out that reducing agricultural emissions through farming practices alone won’t be enough to limit global warming to 1.5°C, but that reducing food waste and changing societies diet could deliver the necessary changes.
Oil giant Shell has stepped up its investment in renewable energy, announcing this week that it has entered into an agreement to acquire a 43.83% stake in leading US solar developer, owner, and operator Silicon Ranch Corporation, a deal set to be worth up to $217 million.
Danish offshore wind energy giant Ørsted has announced that it expects its operating profit for 2017 to reach approximately DKK 22.5 billion, or around $3.61 billion, based on “preliminary and unaudited reporting” and topping off an already impressive financial year.
California Governor Jerry Brown this week signed an agreement with China’s Minister of Science and Technology that will strengthen ties between the two and increase cooperation on the development of green technology.
Con Edison and SunPower will team up to pilot a “virtual power plant” program by offering solar power systems with battery storage to more than 300 New York homeowners. In an announcement made this week, Con Edison, one of the United States’ largest investor-owned energy companies, will partner with SunPower, a world leading renewable energy
A new report shows how the combination of solar and storage could save residents of multifamily affordable rental housing thousands on electricity bills. According to the authors of Closing the California Clean Energy Divide, which explores how battery storage technology combined with residential solar PV could provide greater control to system owners, “significant electric bill
Media giants Bloomberg and Sky plc announced this month that they are joining the RE100 coalition of companies committing to 100% renewable power. RE100 bills itself as “a collaborative, global initiative of influential businesses committed to 100% renewable electricity, working to massively increase corporate demand for renewable energy.” As of the end of the month,
Fossil fuel companies are at risk of wasting up to $2.2 trillion in the next decade by pursuing projects that could be uneconomic. Specifically, the trillions of dollars are at risk, and subsequent lower investor returns are feasible, if fossil fuel companies pursue fossil fuel projects that are uneconomic “in the face of a perfect
Originally published on SolarLove. Following in the wake of a respectable Q3 financial earnings report, US solar manufacturer SunPower has revealed a new line of solar panels and low-key financial guidance for 2016. SunPower announced its third quarter earnings late-October, revealing the continuing efforts of its new business focus, that of retaining assets rather than selling
Damming Chinese rivers has been in the public consciousness for many years now, if for no other reason than for the impact the construction of the Three Gorges Dam had on the surrounding region: the 400 mile long reservoir of the Three Gorges Dam has flooded 13 cities, 140 towns, 1352 villages, and 100,000 acres of China’s
Research has found that approximately 99% of our planet’s land-locked ice is held up in the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. The remainder, however, is out in the open, located primarily in the glaciers dotted throughout the appropriate latitudes across the planet. And according to new research, those glaciers contributed approximately the same amount of
Scientific understanding is continually shifting as time moves on. For decades now, scientists have assumed that ancient high tide lines referred to higher sea levels. These assumptions have led scientists to believe that if the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets were to completely melt, they would cause such a high sea level again. New research,
On Boxing Day of 2004 magnitude 9.1 undersea megathrust earthquake off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia, sparked a tsunami that took the lives of over 280,000 thousand people. The quake was caused when the Indian tectonic plate subducted underneath the Burma Plate, causing 1,600 kilometres of fault surface slippage in two phases over a
Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations have been closely monitored for some time now. Just last month it was predicted that if we did not break through the 400 parts per million (ppm) barrier this May, it would happen next year, according to the longest continuous record of carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. On May 9, true
A new study paints a dire picture of the coming decades, showing that more than half of the common species of plant found across the planet and one third of common animal species could see a dramatic population decline if something is not done to halt global warming soon. “While there has been much research
Remember those David Attenborough documentaries that showed you underneath the snow cover into the world below, home to all manner of creatures and plant life trying to survive through the harsh white winter? Well that same ecosystem — the subnivium — is set to suffer at the hands of a warming climate, according to scientists
Hawaii does not have to suffer the impact of hurricanes often — with only two making landfall in the past 30 years — however this may be set to change in a warming world, according to new research headed by a team of scientists at the International Pacific Research Center, University of Hawaii at Manoa. Hawaii
Understanding the geologic history of Earth will no doubt be a decades, if not centuries long process, as we gather more and more data and expand our knowledge. New research published in the April 25 issue of the journal Nature has contributed an interesting new data point, however, shining a light on the processes involved in
There is nothing better in life than a good robot story, and what’s even better is when that robot is named GROVER. GROVER stands for both Greenland Rover and Goddard Remotely Operated Vehicle for Exploration and Research — which must have just really made the NASA scientists day, when they realised — and is set to
The University of Hawaiʻi has been paying close attention to Hawaiian rainfall patterns of late, and a new study has supported previous research, confirming that rainfall over the Hawaiian Islands has been declining since 1978, a trend that they believe will continue through the end of this century thanks in part to the changes resulting from global
There are stories all across CleanTechnica which display the growing rise of renewable energy use across the globe, but then there are these stories which just do my heart the world of good. According to figures from the nation’s grid operator, Portugal acquires 70% of its power generation for the first quarter of 2013 from renewable
New research has shown that rising sea levels could be greatly slowed if certain fast cycling pollutants are cut from the numerous emissions being pumped into the atmosphere. According to the research, published in the journal Nature Climate Change this week, cutting levels of methane, soot, refrigerants, and gases that lead to the formation of ground-level ozone,
A new study led by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has found that as the planet warms further as a result of increasing levels of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere, the more moisture in the warmer atmosphere will make the already extreme precipitation events more intense. The study further showed that a 20%
Low-level clouds usually reflect solar energy back into space, as does the white coverage of snow. The albedo of cloud and snow — it’s ability to reflect sunlight back into space — is vitally important for minimising the level of solar energy wandering around inside our atmosphere, heating up our planet. One of the fears
You may not have consciously thought about it, but I imagine that to some of you out there who have an environmentally conscientious brain, the fact that the Northern Hemisphere has more landmass and the Southern Hemisphere has more ocean would have triggered some interesting questions. For example, if there is such regional variation in
One of my pet topics to write about are the results of Gallup polls that come out once or twice a year from Gallup’s annual Environment survey. Gallup will poll over a weekend in March 1,022 adults aged 18 and older living within all 50 US states and the District of Columbia. From that representative
The linkage between wastewater injection and earthquakes seems to have been covered ad nauseum over the past few years, especially in relation to the Oklahoma earthquakes on November 6, 2011, when a 5.7 magnitude earthquake near Prague (in Oklahoma, not in Europe) was preceded by a 5.0 shock and followed by literally thousands of aftershocks.
Nearly 40% of the US population is concentrated in counties directly on the shoreline, according to a new report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration with input from the US Census Bureau. On top of that, US coastal populations are set to grow from 123 million people as it stands today, to 134 million
Scientists have for decades attempted to solve the ‘how’ of plate tectonics: how they move across the Earth’s mantle. Studies have shown in the past that dissolved water in mantle minerals results in a more ductile mantle that would facilitate tectonic plate motions, but clear images and data required to confirm such a theory have
