Green Options

On Thursday, European heads of state meeting in Brussels decided to stick to previously set climate action targets despite pressure from several member states to loosen the them. The target, which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent by 2020, will be voted on in December.

Leaders of some EU countries may use the global financial crisis as an excuse to back out of climate change commitments, according to sources close to the ongoing energy negotiations.

The planets may be aligned to finally make solar competitive with coal, according to an article in Bloomberg.com by Greg Chang. Rising natural gas prices, the extension of tax credits for solar investment, and the near-certainty that carbon emissions caps will be imposed by the next U.S. administration, will make it happen. A concentrated solar thermal plant in California’s Mojave Desert, run by FPL, Inc., uses 550,000 mirrors [...]