climate change

"We're going to take our money elsewhere." Maybe those words will have the impact that “global warming,” “climate change,” “green economy” and others have failed to make on skeptical U.S. policymakers. And who uttered the line above – Mr. Kevin Parker, head of Deutsche Bank’s asset management division – is no less important than what was said.

The Silicon Valley Leadership Group and Google co-hosted a morning program this week entitled “Electric Bills and Oil Spills-Will California Continue to Be a Clean Energy Leader?” With more than 400 people in attendance, the question certainly seemed to be a timely and important one.

Greenpeace just released a very interesting report on the world’s renewable energy future. In the organization’s words, “to successfully combat climate change, we urgently need a revolution in the way we produce, consume and distribute energy.”

Despite the ongoing tragedy in the Gulf, there is still a glimmer of hope to be found amid the devastating oil spill: real attention is finally being paid to the need for a clean energy transition, and at the highest levels of government no less. In a speech delivered at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh last Wednesday, President Obama reiterated his appeal to Congress to pass a climate change bill this year.

Recently, I learned The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has the highest per capita ecological footprint in the world – if every person in the world lived and consumed natural resources like an average UAE resident, we would require 4.5 planets to sustain the consumption levels! More than 80% of its carbon footprint is due to carbon intensive goods and services, such as energy and water.