Survival Kit

Here is a story that will tempt you

to put your razor blade back in the cabinet.

Might as well keep your sleeves rolled up though,

because there is plenty of work to do.

Can it be?

My God,

We may survive after all.

This is from Clean Edge

Renewable Energy's Investment Hockey Stick
by Joel Makower
Cleanwatch
December 5, 2005

Global investments in renewable energy seem to be growing faster than any of us thought. If current trends continue, we'll soon be seeing the hockey-stick-shaped growth curves that have become iconic shorthand in technology sectors for hyper-paced growth.

A newly formed alignment of legal, financial, and investment interests will direct "trillions" of U.S. dollars over the next 10 years into evolving markets linked to climate change, clean technology, and sustainable use of natural resources, according to a report being prepared for the United Nations Environment Programme.

"The Working Capital Report," to be published in March 2006 by the UNEP Finance Initiative, is the culmination of a series of studies conducted during 2004 and 2005.

What was once considered a financial niche area is poised to become mainstream as institutions with trillions of dollars under management embed environmental, social and governance thinking into their investment approach, UNEP said in a statement.

"There is no question that 2005 will be seen as the watershed when the mainstream banking, insurance and investment worlds realized the scale of the commercial opportunities unfolding in the new carbon, clean-tech and sustainable natural resource markets and, also, the legal risks of not being a leader in this area," said UNEP Executive Director Klaus Toepfer.

The fastest growing energy technology in the world has been grid-connected solar PV, with total existing capacity increasing from 0.16 gigawatts (GW) at the start of 2000 to 1.8 GW by the end of 2004, for a 60 percent average annual growth rate during the five-year period.

During the same period, other renewable energy technologies grew rapidly as well, says a report by The Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century, or REN21.

wind power: 28 percent
biodiesel: 25 percent
solar hot water/heating: 17 percent
off-grid solar PV: 17 percent
geothermal heat capacity: 13 percent
ethanol: 11 percent

Renewable energy investments now come from a highly diverse range of public and private sources, says the report, "aided by technology standardization and growing acceptance and familiarity by financiers at all scales, from commercial finance of hundred-million- dollar wind farms to household-scale micro-financing."

One recent investment trend is that large commercial banks and stodgy energy utilities are starting to notice renewable energy investment opportunities.

Examples of large banks that are "mainstreaming" renewable energy investments are HypoVereins Bank, Fortis, Dexia, Citigroup, ANZ Bank, Royal Bank of Canada, and Triodos Bank, all of which are very active in financing renewable energy.

Investments by traditional utility companies, which historically as a group have been slow to consider renewables investments, are also becoming more "mainstreamed." Examples of utilities active in renewable energy include Electricité de France, Florida Power and Light (USA), Scottish Power, and Endesa (Spain).

All told, it's an upbeat and encouraging assessment that renewable energy around the world is being embraced by an audience far more important than environmentalists, technologists, or even high-ranking government leaders: the big-bucks investors capable of growing the kinds of large-scale, sustainable markets we'll need to create a renewable- energy future."

Like I have said.

Humankind will make the right decision.

Once all the other alternatives have been exhausted.

Now, if someone would just tell those militant Americans.

Home

What it is About

Earthfamily Principles

Earthfamilyalpha Content II

Earthfamilyalpha Content

Links

LANGUAGE TRANSLATIONS