News from February 2011
Monday 28th February 2011
U.S. PRESIDENT Barack Obama has outlined a plan to offer incentives to commercial buildings that implement energy efficiency measures.
Obama’s “Better Buildings Initiative” announced recently aims to boost energy efficiency by 20 percent in commercial type buildings, including schools, universities, offices, stores, municipal facilities along with commercial buildings.
Obama made the announcement ...
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Monday 28th February 2011
PORTUGAL has reached about one-third of its target to improve national energy efficiency by 10 percent by 2015.
Portuguese State Secretary for Energy Carlos Zorrinho announced the progress stating that the Portuguese National Action Programme for Energy Efficiency (PNAEE), launched in 2008, met 25 percent of its energy-saving target by June ...
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Thursday 24th February 2011
THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank (EIB) revealed this week that its 2010 climate-related projects financing totaled €19 billion, a rise from €16 billion in 2009.
Climate-related project lending makes up 30 percent of the Bank’s total 2010 investment, supporting over 460 large-scale projects.
The EIB dedicated over €8 billion for energy efficiency and ...
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Thursday 24th February 2011
ENERGY saving products and services should be at the heart of any business philosophy, claims one sustainability expert.
UK’s Carbon Trust managing director, Hugh Jones, told the Daily Telegraph that ignoring environmental concerns disregards customer demand along with upcoming legislation and what competitors are already doing.
Despite this opportunity, research by the ...
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Wednesday 23rd February 2011
INVESTING two percent of global GDP into ten key sectors can kick-start a transition towards a low carbon, resource efficient Green Economy a new report launched this week states.
The report, ‘Towards a Green Economy: Pathways to Sustainable Development and Poverty Eradication’, says that investing 2% of worldwide GDP, which about ...
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Wednesday 23rd February 2011
THE largest energy savings in Europe over the next 40 years will result from energy efficiency, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) report.
In its opinion the EESC reckon 80 percent emission cuts can be achieved by the 2050. The study was called for by the European Commission which will ...
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Tuesday 22nd February 2011
FOR PUBLIC and private sector organisations to become energy efficient more is needed than technology, at least according to a new study.
Kathryn Janda, a researcher at the UK Energy Research Centre, authored a report which revealed the importance of educating and informing people about energy use, efficiency and hence changing ...
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Tuesday 22nd February 2011
COMMERCIAL and all non residential buildings in San Francisco, U.S.A., will now have to report their energy use publicly, and take steps to become ever more energy efficient.
San Francisco’s mayor, Edwin Lee, signed ‘The Existing Commercial Building Energy Performance Ordinance’ last Friday, which requires that existing commercial buildings make their ...
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Monday 21st February 2011
ENERGY efficiency is key to achieving zero energy use in commercial buildings, reveals two reports in the United States.
The two new reports from the Zero Energy Commercial Buildings Consortium (CBC) on achieving net-zero-energy use in commercial buildings say "high levels of energy efficiency are the first, largest and most important ...
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Monday 21st February 2011
AUSTRALIAN businesses are set to be hit by soaring electricity costs, with prices predicted to be double 2008 prices by 2015, a report by Australian Industry Group (AIG) reveals.
The report “Energy shock: confronting higher prices” delivers a grim message for businesses, with the federal government’s renewable energy scheme expected to ...
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Friday 18th February 2011
IRELAND’S Energy Minister Pat Carey has stated that an updated and more ambitious Energy Efficiency Action Plan is needed for his country.
“Ireland’s first action plan succeeded in focusing national energy policy on measures which can deliver a sustainable energy future.” Carey explained.
“The actions outlined in the National Energy Efficiency Action ...
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Friday 18th February 2011
CHILE’S government has plans to reduce voltages to cut energy consumption nationwide and avoid potential energy cuts in the future.
Chilean media report that the risk of blackouts is growing as a result of reduced rainfall, necessary to feed Chile’s hydroelectric reservoirs, and have predicted a 10 percent rise in energy ...
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Thursday 17th February 2011
IF YOU sell your emission credits what would you spend the proceeds on? Wisdom dictates energy efficiency, which is what Estonia is doing, releasing more emissions credits for future sale.
The Estonian government sanctioned today the selling 500,000 United Nations emission credits, Assigned Amount Units (AUU), that they do not need ...
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Thursday 17th February 2011
IN 2000 floods wreaked havoc across Britain and a new report states they were made more likely by global warming, the first study to link UK flooding to climate change.
The scientists behind the report point the finger at greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions as the cause for extreme rainfall becoming evermore ...
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Wednesday 16th February 2011
A 25 PERCENT reduction in harmful emissions by 2020 is achievable according to a draft copy of the EU's 'roadmap for moving to a low-carbon economy in 2050.'
The long-awaited document, due to be published next week, has been seen in draft form by EurActiv and provides a twist to the ...
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Wednesday 16th February 2011
ENERGY efficiency programmes offer relatively inexpensive, easy fixes resulting in reduced costs and emissions leading to many States across the U.S. grabbing what has been labelled "low-hanging fruit".
Many American states appreciate the need for energy efficiency and are pushing ahead, full-steam, with energy-savings targets. Together, these states will help the ...
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Tuesday 15th February 2011
SOUTH AFRICAN government minister Sibusiso Ndebele said today that energy efficiency is vital for the countries progress and crucial for the next few years..
Business Report detailed Transport Minister Ndebele’s words to the media on behalf of the infrastructure cluster of ministries.
“Energy efficiency will play an increasingly important role in our ...
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Tuesday 15th February 2011
SINGAPORE has the greatest investment potential in Southeast Asia when it comes to energy efficiency improvements, with other countries close behind, according to a new report funded by the British government.
The benefits of energy efficiency initiatives are clear, as the investments would help the region's businesses cut back on ...
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Monday 14th February 2011
ROYAL DUTCH Shell today published Signals and Signposts - a report into future energy scenarios, following closely on the heels of Exxon’s and BP’s recent reports on the future of energy use.
Signals and Signposts offers a deep understanding of global developments and the world's energy supply, use and needs. They ...
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Monday 14th February 2011
THE JAMAICAN government is looking to reduce the islands public sector electricity costs of more than US$1 billion by implementing a US$90 million energy efficiency programme.
The programme is geared to produce a 15 percent reduction in Jamaica’s energy consumption across all state agencies in the short to medium term.
Speaking at ...
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Friday 11th February 2011
ALMOST 90 percent Fortune 1000 senior executives feel a moral responsibility to make their companies more energy efficient, and only 13 percent motivated by environmental concerns.
A poll by Harris Interactive, on behalf of Schneider Electric, found that 88 percent of executives feel a moral responsibility to cut energy use, beyond ...
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Friday 11th February 2011
THE EUROPEAN Union will impose legally binding energy efficiency targets within two years according to draft documents seen by Reuters.
We have reported over the last couple of months the to-ing and fro-ing in the EU’s energy efficiency binding targets debate, but it now seems to be coming to a head.
Last ...
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Thursday 10th February 2011
INCREASINGLY commercial tenants are demanding office buildings that are energy efficient according to research from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and the Urban Land Institute.
The research involved the views of 600 real estate experts, revealing that sustainability will be more marketable this year as inefficient office buildings are becoming far less popular.
The report ...
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Tuesday 8th February 2011
UNLOCKING the benefits of energy efficiency: An executive dilemma - is a new research report produced by the Economist Intelligence Unit highlighting the importance and challenges of energy efficiency for corporations.
The report claims that while around half of executives say energy efficiency initiatives have already helped improve their organisation's bottom ...
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Tuesday 8th February 2011
WHEN it comes to green investing and profiting from efforts to curb carbon emissions, stocks of companies that focus on energy efficiency offer better prospects than wind and solar power.
This is the conclusion of an article from Businessweek, where they quote Nino Tronchetti Provera, of Milan's Ambienta SGR: "Clean ...
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Obama Announces Incentives for Energy Efficiency
