More than a century into its existence, Philips is once again betting heavily on semiconductors. This time the consumer electronics firm is looking to harness their potential as a source of light.
Prices for European carbon emissions permits are too low to deliver low-carbon investment and the British government should press the EU to tighten limits on emissions, a UK Parliamentary committee said on Monday.
Electric cars must be backed by "smart" power networks if they are to help the world's climate problems, environmentalists warned on Monday as European ministers prepared to debate a strategy for the sector.
As he prepares to call an election later this year Kevin Rudd, Australia's prime minister, is hoping his government's handling of the global financial crisis might help him win a second term. Australia was one of the few rich countries to avoid a recession. Unemployment in December fell to 5.5%. But a report published on February 1st announces an even bigger challenge for the economy: a population explosion.
The idea of the "Netscape moment", a fund-raising that signals the spawning of a whole new industry, is dear to Silicon Valley types who think back fondly to the browser firm's spectacular initial public offering in 1995. So it was not surprising that in late January Shai Agassi, a former software entrepreneur, greeted a $350m investment in his company, Better Place, led by HSBC, in just those terms.
Something curious has been happening in the carbon markets. They are entirely political creations—even the most inventive financial engineers would not, on their own, have come up with the idea of a difference in value between the air people breathe in and the air they breathe out. Yet traders seem pretty uninterested in political cues. At the chaotic end of the Copenhagen climate summit in December, prices in the largest market in carbon-dioxide emissions, the European Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), did drop from 14.60 ($20.50) to 12.70. But that still left the price of a tonne of carbon dioxide comfortably above its lowest level last year.
Germany's plan to cut a major incentive for solar power generation is expected to cause a global oversupply of solar panels that could further drive down U.S. prices this year.
An aggressive renewable energy standard (RES) would create more than a quarter-million jobs by 2025, according to a new study sponsored by renewable power companies and advocacy groups.
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