Obama is Back on for Copenhagen

Obama has announced that he will attend the climate change negotiations in Copenhagen next weekend. This will be the first international climate change negotiations that a US President has ever attended.

Obama and Hu Jintao (China) have talked about climate change, now Obama and Dr. Manmohan Singh (India) talk about climate change and the possibilities for mitigation.

International climate change negotiations between the industrialized and unindustrialized world always come to money, how are poor countries to advance technology when they don't have the money to do so? Gordon Brown has announced that Great Britain will put over $1 billion into a fund that functions to fast track money to poorer countries so they can fund efforts to mitigate and deal with climate change. The fund will grow quickly in the next decade.

Reuters reports on "Det Norske Veritas, a leading international certifier, has drafted standards which businesses ranging from coffee making to diamond sourcing can use to flag sustainability of supply chains, DNV senior executives said."
This is very important for environmental-economics as the consumer needs as much information about their products as they can get. With the expansion of sustainability certifications consumers will see more transparency in the market and can signal the market more intentionally.

The California Energy Commission bans t.v.s that eat too much energy. It will save California a lot of money. This environmentally friendly move would have never been possible without a financial crisis in California.

Innovation in the wind turbine industry makes wind turbines more efficient in their use of land.

A new study says that Americans waste a large amount of their food. From manufacturing, to transporting and selling to the dinner table Americans throw away their food in large amounts. There is much more room for becoming more conscious about our consumption habits.