US Secretary of State Says Climate Science is as Settled as Gravity

Secretary of State John Kerry argued Thursday that the science showing Earth’s climate is warming because of human activity is as clear and settled as the science that shows gravity will force an apple to fall out of its tree and down to the ground. Kerry has routinely called for steps to reduce human-based carbon emissions. Kerry’s devotion to the issue has led some to criticize him for focusing on climate issues instead of spending more time on Ukraine, Iran or other global hotspots. Read more at http://www.theblaze.com

Nicaragua On Course To Become Renewable Powerhouse

In the period 2006-2012, the Central American country attracted $1.5 billion in investment in renewable energy, the largest such per capita investment in Latin America. As a result, it now derives 15% of its electricity from wind power plants, 16% from geothermal, 12% from hydro, and 7% from biomass. It has scarcely begun to exploit solar power potential too.  According to the energy plan released last fall, the government plans to attract $4 billion in renewable energy investment over the next 15 years. Read more at http://oilprice.com

India to partner with Africa to fight climate change

Ahead of the UN climate conference in Paris later this year, India Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar  on Wednesday said that adaptation and mitigation must be accorded "equal" importance and assured that it will partner with African nations to fight climate change while taking cooperation to a "new level". Read more at http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com

European Commission published its proposals for the Energy Union

The paper sets out the Commission’s thinking on what it describes as the biggest energy project since the creation of the Coal and Steel Community. The vision, put simply, is to create a bloc where surplus energy in one place can be moved to where there is a shortage, thereby bolstering the EU’s resilience to shortages. The Energy Union was given political impetus after the Ukraine crisis brutally exposed Europe's energy dependence and vulnerability. Shortages caused by Russia turning off the taps in 2009 have prompted the union to develop plans which go beyond to encompass issues such as climate change. Read more at http://www.euractiv.com

Hidden costs of greenhouse gas emissions.

The study, published in the journal Climatic Change, is the first to pull together a proper accounting of the hidden costs of greenhouse gas emissions. It shows the true (and much higher) cost that Americans  pay in dollars at the pump and light switch—or in human lives at the emergency room. If all greenhouse gas  damages are added in like the gas tax, a gallon of regular in the United States would really cost $6.25. The price of diesel would be a whopping $7.72 a gallon. Read more at http://qz.com

Is it climate change or just a string of bad natural luck?

What’s up with the weather? In California, now in the fourth year of drought, it was even worse, with hot weather from Mexico to Oregon over the Presidents’ Day Weekend. A patch of abnormal weather or the front edge of a dramatically changing climate? Climate scientists don’t agree, and those on the sidelines have argued even more vehemently. Read more at http://mountaintownnews.net

A new path forward for energy efficiency based on markets

How to overcome the limitations of top-down energy efficiency programs and to lay out a pathway toward a market where energy efficiency is treated as a tradable resource, spurring business model innovation and private investment? Energy efficiency needs a version of the net energy meter, where savings can be calculated, tracked and valued, and programs can give way to competitive scalable markets. The lack of such a meter is the Achilles heel of energy efficiency. However, with recent investments in smart meters and data standards, it is now possible to reliably track savings at a portfolio level in near-real time. Read more at www.greentechmedia.com

New book on Green Industrial Revolution

 In the new book, The Green Industrial Revolution (GIR): Energy, Engineering and Economics, published by Reed/Elsevier (late 2014), authors, Woodrow Clark and Grant Cooke, state that GIR is even more significant to the world's future than the original 18th century Industrial Revolution, because our children and grand children's lives are at stake. Read more at http://www.huffingtonpost.com

Can We Fix Climate Change With Technology?

A report from the National Academy of Sciences concluded that experiments in blotting out the sun in order to reduce the amount of the sun’s rays that hit the Earth would be too risky. Spraying aerosols into the atmosphere – one leading approaching to “geoengineering” – would be a massive science experiment that would have unknown environmental side effects. Read more at www.time.com

Google's new investment in renewable energy

Google Inc. is making its largest bet yet on renewable energy, a $300 million investment to support at least 25,000 SolarCity Corp. rooftop power plants. Google has now committed more than $1.8 billion to renewable energy projects, including wind and solar farms on three continents. This deal may have a return as high as 8 percent it is structured as a tax-equity transaction, meaning the web search developer gets tax breaks that flow from solar systems financed by the fund.  Read more at www.bloomberg.com