Green Options

This post was written by Paul O’Callaghan, founding CEO of the Clean Tech consultancy, O2 Environmental Inc. and lecturer on Sustainable Energy at the BC Institute of Technology.

‘Any plan to switch from gasoline to electricity or biofuels is a strategic decision to switch our dependence from foreign oil to domestic water’.

So says Dr. Michael Webber of the University of Texas at Austin in an interview with Steven Lacey on the Inside Renewable Energy Podcast this week.

Webber comments on the links between water and energy, the potential conflicts, but also about the potential opportunities which arise when you start to understand these links and realize that saving water saves energy, and saving energy saves water.

This post is submitted by Paul O’Callaghan founding CEO of O2 Environmental .

‘Growing world population will cause a “perfect storm” of food, energy and water shortages by 2030′. That is what a UK Government chief scientist told attendees at the Sustainable Development conference in London yesterday. Prof. Beddington told the group that demand for food and energy will jump 50% by 2030 and for fresh water by 30%, as the population tops 8.3 billion.

Despite this, investment in water deals represented just 1.8% of the total investment in the Clean Technology area in 2008. There are number of reasons for this and also signs that this is changing.