China’s energy efficiency industry is emerging as a high
growth sector with the country projected to spend as much as
Rmb2.1 trillion (USD300 billion) over the next five years on
products and services that cut energy use. The key drivers of
this development are the Chinese government’s determination
to curb the country’s expanding energy appetite as well
as higher production and energy costs. Firms that develop
cost-effective energy-saving technologies, particularly for
the most energy-intensive industries, are poised to capture
the opportunities. If successful, these enterprises will not
only become profi table, but will also help lead China to a
more sustainable energy future.
This flow chart shows the sources and activities across the U.S. economy that produce greenhouse gas emissions. Energy use is by far responsible for the majority of greenhouse gases.
With today’s announcement by fourteen of California’s most prominent energy buyers, green power becomes an even more integral part of doing business in California.
These films show how Senegal’s Forestry service, forest merchants, and other government agents are blocking local governments from playing their legal role in forest management and use.
In the years to come, the world must meet the energy
needs of a growing and developing world population while
mitigating the impacts of global climate change. This policy
brief seeks to establish a framework for considering the
complex and evolving links between energy security and
climate change, and identifi es three challenges:
the evolving and interconnected nature of energy security and climate change definitions and goals,
the variables that contribute to an uncertain future, and
the trade-offs and unintended consequences involved in addressing both issues.
A workable strategy must be concerned not just with how to
design a future in which climate change and energy security
concerns are met, but also with the pathway to get there. To
guide this transition, this brief offers several guiding principles
for devising energy and climate policies that are both
effective and politically viable.
Beijing Shenwu Thermal Energy Company, a once struggling small enterprise, is revolutionizing China’s industrial energy consumption by making it more efficient and cleaner.
Trends to Watch is WRI’s annual forecast of emerging issues that will have major impacts on environmental coverage in 2008. On climate change: what will happen between COP-13 in Bali, and COP-14 in Poznan? What role will China play? Will we see new legislation and regulations from Congress or the EPA? Where will biofuels and technology go? Where will the water come from? WRI President Jonathan Lash makes his predictions at the National Press Club.
Decisions about energy policy must consider the impacts and tradeoffs to both energy security and climate change. This analysis assesses a range of energy choices currently under consideration, and illustrates how well each option addresses each of these challenges