The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development announced yesterday funding totaling $41 million in concessional loans for renewable energy projects in six developing countries: Ecuador, Sierra Leone, the Maldives, Mauritania, Samoa, and Mali.
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developing countries
After more than 36 hours of continuous negotiations, delegates at the U.N. climate talks in Warsaw agreed to two last-minute deals that kept alive hopes for staving off climate change. At talks that ended Saturday, delegates agreed to a proposed system for pledging cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.
The world’s poorest countries are investing more in LED lighting, energy storage, and other off-grid electricity technologies, according to a report by Larry West.
In cities across the United States, LED lighting like LED wall packs or LED bollards help cut energy costs, carbon dioxide emissions, and excessive light
A new U.N. fund designed to manage billions of dollars to help developing nations combat climate change and called The Green Climate Fund will be based in South Korea.
The Board of the fund has selected Songdo, Incheon City, South Korea, the board of the fund over Mexico,
(Reuters) – EDF Trading, subsidiary of French utility EDF, said on Thursday it has ended its involvement in a biogas project in Honduras which an environmental group claims is linked to human rights abuses.
“We have taken the situation in Honduras very seriously and have spent the past few months looking at our options in respect to
(Reuters) – Developing countries accused Japan on Wednesday of breaking a pledge to extend a U.N. pact for fighting global warming beyond 2012 and said that climate talks in Mexico would fail unless Tokyo backed down.
Japan, among almost 40 industrialized nations curbing greenhouse gas emissions
China Pushes Commitments From Western Nations at Global Climate Talks
written by Yale Environment 360
Chinese officials say international climate talks next week in Mexico will succeed only if wealthy countries are willing to share technologies and funds to help developing nations reduce greenhouse gas emissions. While Western nations had pledged at last year’s climate summit in Copenhagen to pay into a $30 billion fund to help developing countries deal with the effects
In an effort to make people in Angkor Wat, Cambodia more comfortable while walking the streets at night, avant garde Nothing Design Group created the tree-like solar lamps in partnership with Asiana Airlines and Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA).
Angkor Wat is a UNESCO World Heritage site, but many tourists felt unsafe exploring the town once the sun had set. These cheerful lighting installations encourage visitors to become more integrated with the local community, and allow locals to generate more income by keeping businesses open later.
The solar trees also help demonstrate the immediate impact renewable energy can have on developing countries, especially when traditional infrastructure is limited.
So far, 16 solar streetlights have been installed, and the team plans to install 5 to 10 more a year until 2015.
Article by Beth Buczynski, appearing courtesy Crisp Green.
The United States and a coalition of the world’s island nations and least developed countries are placing growing pressure on swiftly developing countries — most notably China — to commit to firm CO2 emissions reductions targets at the Copenhagen summit. As the U.S.’s chief climate negotiator, Todd Stern, told reporters there’s “no way” to solve the global warming problem “by giving the major developing countries a pass,” poor states and island nations proposed that all countries sign an agreement with legally binding CO2 reductions targets. China rejected that idea.
The Alliance of Small Island States — composed of 43 nations highly vulnerable to global warming and sea level rise — was joined by 48 of the world’s poorest countries in proposing that the Copenhagen summit set a goal of holding global temperature increases to 1.5 C (2.7 F) above pre-industrial levels. But as the small nations were making that plea, the UK’s Met Office said that given rapidly rising concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere, meeting a 1.5 C goal was virtually impossible and that holding global temperature increases to 2 C (3.6 F) will be difficult, even in the highly unlikely event that global greenhouse gas emissions peak in 2020.
The developing world, where 44 percent of people lack access to electricity, could soon be one of the biggest markets for solar power, according to participants at the Solar Power International conference in California.
To date, just 1 percent of solar panel production has been installed in poor nations in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, a situation that Michael Eckhart, president of the American Council on Renewable Energy, called “a scandal for our industry.”
Since I just posted about my thoughts on sustainable energy in Africa, I might as well follow up with more musings on sustainable development there. Although most of my time in Kenya was spent in Nairobi, I also had a chance to explore Lake Naivasha’s industry and ecosystem. I met, for example, with the VP of Finance and Administration of Homegrown Ltd, a huge floriculture company specializing in roses, exporting hundreds of millions each year. A few things struck me from the encounter.
First, Lake Naivasha, the source of water for the entire local flower industry, is changing. It is drying up and its water is becoming more polluted. While this is partially due to natural cycles, it is mostly attributed to man. Homegrown and other florists in the Lake Naivasha Growers Group surprised me with their recognition of culpability and their proactivity in addressing the issue despite no government requirement to do so. For example, they have planted local shrubs along the banks to slow runoff and filter the water that enters the lake.
Second, Homegrown is committed to reducing its environmental impact through elimination of chemical-based pesticides. However, the need to reduce rose-eating pests remains. To strike this balance, Homegrown founded another company, DuduTech (“Dudu” means “insect” in Swahili.), which develops “pesticides” by using naturally occurring insects that prey on the pests. This includes predatory insects, parasitic bugs, and a host of other approaches that all have the same objective: neutralize the pests without introducing chemicals into the environment. Cool stuff.