Trillions turn green – Market Watch. “Nearly 50 leading U.S. and European investors representing more than $8 trillion of assets met on Feb. 14 at the United Nations to lay out a timetable for their commitments to global climate change and to call on governments and other investors to act with their money as well.”

US Should Speed Up Energy Efficiency Plans – IEA – Reuters. “The US government needs to move more quickly on plans to boost automobile fuel efficiency standards, improve efficiency of power plants and take hard action on heat-trapping greenhouse gases, the International Energy Agency said Friday.”

Follow Germany’s lead, invest to save energy – The Telegraph (UK). An interesting spin on modernizing (and making efficient) the building sector (responsible for 39 percent of U.S. emissions – except this is in Germany/UK).

Easing concerns about pollution from manufacture of solar cells – Physorg.com
The study hasn’t been released, but it will be worth keeping an eye out:

Solar energy has been touted for years as a safer, cleaner alternative to burning fossil fuels to meet rising energy demands.

However, environmentalists and others are increasingly concerned about the potential negative impact of solar cell (photovoltaic) technology. Manufacture of photovoltaic cells requires potentially toxic metals such as lead, mercury and cadmium and produces carbon dioxide, which contributes to global warming.

In the new study, Vasilis M. Fthenakis and colleagues gathered air pollution emissions data from 13 solar cell manufacturers in Europe and the United States from 2004-2006. The solar cells include four major commercial types: multicrystalline silicon, monocrystalline silicon, ribbon silicon, and thin-film cadmium telluride.

The researchers found that producing electricity from solar cells reduces air pollutants by about 90 percent in comparison to using conventional fossil fuel technologies.

The Center for American Progress has a good article on the clean energy investment bill that will voted on soon by Congress. Bush and the conservatives have thwarted this effort repeatedly, but it remains an important piece of legislation, especially because:

The new bill includes a production tax credit for wind, geothermal, and other renewables. It allots $250 million more than the previous bill and extends the credit for an additional year to 2011. The bill also renews the investment tax credit for individual home owners and businesses to maintain incentives for solar energy through the end of 2016. Extending these two provisions is essential to the completion of 42,000 megawatts of planned renewable energy projects that are currently in development in 45 states. Without prompt extensions of the tax credits, renewable energy project work stoppages could cost 116,000 jobs.

This is really a no-brainer for those interested in either the environment or economic stimulus.

As all eyes turn toward Texas this week in advance of the Democratic primary, we will see a state that is beginning its transition to a new energy economy. Texas is grappling with a shift the entire nation faces — and as usual, it’s doing it on a big scale.

When it comes to energy and to carbon emissions, Texas is a place of superlatives and contrasts. It has more solar, wind and biomass resources that any other state; but it’s also No. 1 in total carbon emissions.

It is the ancestral home of Big Oil, but it also hosts the world’s largest wind farms. It has a very successful renewable energy portfolio standard (RPS), but it also has two nuclear power plants in the pipeline to provide power to its rapidly growing population.

A year ago in a watershed deal, a private equity firm working with environmentalists arranged a $45 billion buyout of the state’s largest power producer, TXU. As part of the deal, eight of 11 planned new coal-fired power plants were cancelled. However, as many as nine new coal plants remain in the pipeline.

In Texas, we see a contest between conventional and renewable energy resources, and between the past and the future.

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The European Environment Agency (EEA) reports:

Total greenhouse gas emissions in the EU-27, excluding emission and removals from land-use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF), decreased by 0.7 % between 2004 and 2005 and by 7.9 % between 1990 and 2005.

Over the same period, 1990 to 2005, U.S. greenhouse gas emissions are up an alarmaing 17%. The EEA report underscores a point I have made repeatedly — the transportation sector remains the toughest nut to crack:

Between 1990 and 2005, greenhouse gas emissions decreased in all sectors except in the transport sector, where they increased significantly.

The EU-15 are down 2% since 1990, whereas Kyoto requires an 8% drop averaged over 2008-2012. This suggests the EU-15 will be buying some tons on the international market (perhaps from their neighbors) if they want to meet their target, which I hope they do — notwithstanding how politically unattractive that must seem to those countries with the richest country in the world refusing to do its part.

If you’d like to see how each country is doing, this figure has all the details (click on it to enlarge, and then click on it again):

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*["That number does not yet include hybrid sales figures from GM, who does not report them separately."] Green Car Congress reports:

US sales of hybrids in January 2008 climbed 27.3% to 22,392 units, according to monthly sales reports from automakers…. Toyota’s Prius posted best-ever January sales of 11,379 units, an increase of 37.1% over last January….

Yes, the Prius is half of all (non-GM) hybrids sold!

The reported sales of hybrids represented 2.14% of the more than 1.04 million new vehicles sold in the month.

So there isn’t a lot of price sensitivity to gasoline, but at least there is some.