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Soaring eagle captures breathtaking images | All media content | DW.DE | 25.10.2014.

http://www.dw.de/embed/640/av-18020470

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Planning and Financing Low-Carbon, Livable Cities.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim announced a groundbreaking new initiative to reach 300 cities in developing countries over four years to help them plan for a low-carbon future and get the needed finance flowing.
• An estimated 6.2 billion people – two-thirds of the world’s population – will be living in cities by 2050.
• Cities already account for about two-thirds of the world’s energy consumption and about 70 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. A low-carbon development path could help them cut global greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent.

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“Ikal Angelei is helping lead a campaign to stop construction of a major dam in Ethiopia that threatens the water supply and way of life of tens of thousands of indigenous people. In an interview with Yale Environment 360, she explains what she believes is at stake in the fight against the Gibe III dam.”

via A Kenyan Woman Stands Up Against Massive Dam Project by Christina M. Russo: Yale Environment 360.

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“He said that despite the failures of successive governments – including his own 1992-2000 administration in the US – to forge working treaties on climate change, and to cut greenhouse gas emissions, people should take the initiative by working together and individually to reduce their own impact on the environment. He pointed to the work of the biologist EO Wilson, whose most recent work suggests that human beings and other complex natural societies prosper through co-operation. “I believe that in a complex world … these creative networks of co-operation have to triumph over conflict-driven models,” said Clinton.”

via Bill Clinton: cutting use of natural resources would help US economy | World news | guardian.co.uk.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/13/bill-clinton-natural-resources-us?newsfeed=true

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Serial entrepeneur Elon Musk and his Electric Vehicle (EV) endeavour Tesla Motors is profiled in the complete article.

Very inspiring overview of disruptive technology approach in a critical industry and mode of transportation which we so heavily rely on :

“When Tesla Motors moved into its new Palo Alto headquarters in 2010, CEO Elon Musk raised a flute of Champagne and toasted his cheering staff. In a light, elegant accent–a remnant of 17 years growing up in South Africa–Musk said to the crowd: “Here’s to creating the greatest car company of the 21st century, and to making a real difference in the world, and to moving us off fucking oil as fast as possible.” You can actually watch Musk doing this if you’re curious, about 80 minutes into the documentary Revenge of the Electric Car. But, in fact, this is the kind of thing that Musk says all the time, in television interviews and at technology conferences, and he’s been saying it about his firm even before people began paying much attention. Back in 2006, for instance, two years before Tesla started deliveries of the sporty $109,000 Tesla Roadster, its first (and so far only) model, Musk happened to write on his blog that the master plan for his company was fairly simple:

1. Build sports car

2. Use that money to build an affordable car

3. Use that money to build an even more affordable car

4. While doing above, also provide zero-emission electric-power generation options

What rankles Musk is how often his master plan gets ignored. Sitting at his desk in Palo Alto on a January morning, Musk tells me he has been repeatedly criticized for being an elitist–“one who thinks there’s a shortage of sports cars for rich people.” He seems resigned to the fact that the proof that he is not a snob will only arrive in good time. Soon enough, Tesla will demonstrate to the world that its products are not for millionaires but for everyone.”

via Why Tesla Motors Is Betting On The Model S | Fast Company.

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“In an interview with DW, the head of an effort to reform the way the UN deals with environmental problems outlines his suggestions for how the world could move from countless talk shops to action.

Frank Biermann is the chair of the Earth System Governance Project and a professor at Amsterdam’s Free University. He is leading an effort to radically overhaul international institutions like the UN, to make them more effective in their response to global environmental problems like climate change, species loss and pollution.

DW spoke to him at this week’s Planet under Pressure conference in London, where he presented his team’s proposals to be considered at the Rio Earth Summit later this year.

DW: ……. ” ( click the link

for the interview)

via Interview: it’s time to drop consensus | Environment | DW.DE | 27.03.2012.

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“Carbon dioxide removal, or CDR, is sometimes seen as a subset of geoengineering — deliberate, planetary-scale actions to cool the Earth — but it’s actually quite different. Geoengineering strategies are risky, imperfect, Carbon dioxide removal is more akin to recycling waste than to playing God with nature. controversial, and difficult to govern. The most-discussed geoengineering technology, solar radiation management, alleviates a symptom of the climate problem (warmer temperatures) but does nothing to address the cause (rising atmospheric concentrations of CO2). What’s more, geoengineering as a climate response is stuck because governments have declined to provide more than token funds for research, and there’s no business model to support it.

 

Carbon dioxide removal, by contrast, targets the root cause of global warming. It doesn’t create global risks. It’s being financed by the private market, and it’s more akin to recycling waste than to playing God with the weather.

Despite widespread skepticism in the scientific community, three startup companies are betting that they can make money by recycling CO2, and thereby cool an overheating planet.”

via Rethinking Carbon Dioxide: From a Pollutant to an Asset by Marc Gunther: Yale Environment 360.

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“Although environmental investing and entrepreneurship in emerging markets has undergone a transformation from a nascent concept to a burgeoning market over the past decade, clear challenges to greater growth remain. How do institutions collectively move from a retail approach – each institution supporting companies one by one – to a wholesale approach – truly developing an ecosystem of support for environmental SMEs in emerging economies? In other words, how do we get to scale so that these enterprises collectively are having real positive environmental impacts at a large scale?

We still need to examine the bottom line and address models that demonstrate savings, increase profits, and increase market access, but many believe that the case has been made for whether “environmental” companies have economic viability. “The conversation is not whether or not these companies are viable, as was the case ten years ago. We’ve seen that they generate profits, can grow, and are a good business investment. Now the question is: how can we multiply them?” Ros said.

Investment into environmental and social businesses is growing – many investors are pouring capital into emerging markets, and GDP growth rates of NV countries continue to grow. However, for environmental entrepreneurship to get to scale, there must be three conditions fulfilled, as in all other markets: there must be robust demand from investors for a pipeline of environmental enterprises, a promising supply of enterprises ready for investment, and solid transactional infrastructure to enable these investments.

In order to highlight the development of these three necessary conditions, NextBillion will be featuring a series of articles over the next twelve months, in addition to this introductory piece, to stimulate discussion around environmental entrepreneurship, with a focus on SMEs and emerging markets. Several authors will post monthly articles about growing the market conditions for environmental SMEs around these three main topics: supply (of companies), demand (with regards to investment capital) and infrastructure (i.e. exchange platforms and metrics).”

via NextBillion.net | Scaling up Environmental Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies – Framing the Discussion.

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“Gregg Treinish: Modern explorer

As a young modern explorer, Gregg Treinish already boasts an impressive résumé. He has hiked the 2,174-mile Appalachian Trail, became the first man ever to trek the Andes Mountains (covering 7,800 miles), and in 2008 was named “Adventurer of the Year” by the National Geographic Society.

Still, Mr. Treinish says, he felt unfulfilled. The 29-year-old, who lives in Bozeman, Mont., is well aware that some in society look upon him and other members of Generation X as being self-centered and civically apathetic. So this year he founded an or-ganization that offers his Merrell-wearing contemporaries a way to make a difference in the world.

Adventurers and Scientists for Conservation combines the passion of exploration with citizen science and the research needs of cash-strapped government agencies and environmental groups.

He has backcountry skiers, for example, assisting with efforts to expand a database on elusive wolverines, and alpinists documenting how global warming affects species in high elevations – the rafters of the earth.

He has backcountry skiers, for example, assisting with efforts to expand a database on elusive wolverines, and alpinists documenting how global warming affects species in high elevations – the rafters of the earth.

“We live in a time when young people are struggling to cope with traditional notions of what ‘success’ means that have been imposed upon them, and, at the same time, they are told to have lower expectations of what they can achieve,” Treinish says. “We reject that. Having an enriching life doesn’t have to be based on money.”

He is concerned, too, about the phenomenon called “nature deficit disorder,” coined by writer Richard Louv, that negatively affects children who are detached from natural environments. His group hooks up kids in different cultures, directly or digitally, with world-class explorers to ignite their interest in the outdoors and potentially to pursue careers in such things as wildlife biology, geology, and climate change.

“We want to make science cool,” he says.”

via Thirty ideas from people under 30: The Environmentalists – Gregg Treinish: Modern explorer – CSMonitor.com.

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“International policies that would direct “just 2 percent of global GDP into 10 key sectors would kick-start” the global transition to a more sustainable, ‘Green Economy,’ according to a UN Environmental Program report.

All the elements to enact a transition to a “low-carbon, resource-efficient and socially inclusive global economic model” are here now, and businesses and governments are already promoting and fostering greater investments in 10 key sectors UNEP has singled out: agriculture, energy, buildings, water, forestry, fisheries, manufacturing, waste, tourism and transport.

Investing 2 percent of global GDP in these sectors would not only “shift the global economy on to a more sustainable growth trajectory, but it would maintain or increase growth over time compared to the current business models,” according to UNEP’s “Towards a Green Economy: Pathways to Sustainable Development and Poverty Eradication.”

Investing $100 billion to $300 billion per year in sustainable agriculture between now and 2050, according to UNEP, “could lead to better soil quality and better yields for major crops, representing a 10% increase over the current strategies.”

“The elements of a transition to a Green Economy are clearly emerging across developing and developed countries alike,” UNEP executive director Achim Steiner stated. “There are now some nations going further and faster than others, which is in many ways generating a ‘pull factor’ that, if maintained, may bring others along over the coming months and years.”

Time is Ripe

The time is ripe, the UN points out, as UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiators, stakeholders and participating observers prepare to convene in Durban, South Africa at the end of the month to try and negotiate an extension or a successor to the Kyoto Protocol.

“With the world looking ahead to the Rio+20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development in June 2012, the UNEP Green Economy report challenges the myth that there is a trade-off between the economy and the environment,” said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in a statement issued on the release of the report.

“With smart public policies, governments can grow their economies, generate decent employment and accelerate social progress in a way that keeps humanity’s ecological footprint within the planet’s carrying capacity.” ”

via Invest 2% of GDP in 10 Sectors Result: A Green Global Economy | CleanTechnica.