Positive impact from home air conditioning

Juliet Eilperin recently wrote in the Washington Post about a new study that has analysed the impact of deploying air conditioning on a wide scale to reduce deaths from excessive heat.  While this is interesting indeed, it does not mention that maybe houses should be better built to integrate passive heating and cooling in order … Continue reading Positive impact from home air conditioning →

New article on energy efficiency product standards

Now that the Commission has published the Ecodesign working document for 2012-2014, our minds should be focussing more on how products can become more energy efficient. Noah Sachs recently published an article in Vanderbilt Law Review entitled “Can We Regulate Our Way to Energy Efficiency? Product Standards as Climate Policy.”    In the United States, regulation … Continue reading New article on energy efficiency product standards →

New survey on the state of implementation of energy efficiency policies in the EU

Energy Efficiency Watch 2 has recently published an extensive survey on the progress of energy efficiency policies and their implementation of national energy efficiency policies. More than 700 experts from all 27 Member States contributed to the survey between April 2011 and September 2012. More information on the survey is available here. You can download … Continue reading New survey on the state of implementation of energy efficiency policies in the EU →

Reviewing environmental taxes

Martin Baxter, Executive Director for policy at the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment wrote this blog for Sustainable Business in the Guardian. While it is about issues in Britain, it has relevance to all countries. Environmental taxes need review to stay relevant When environmental taxes change business behaviour, revenues will fall – something the … Continue reading Reviewing environmental taxes →

Now the insurance industry is starting to take climate change seriously

Kenneth Weiss of the Los Angeles Times writes about a new study undertaken by Evan Mills of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.  Evan has just written a column on the subject for eceee and this article complements that column well. Climate change taken seriously by insurance industry, study says Paying out billions of dollars here and … Continue reading Now the insurance industry is starting to take climate change seriously →

New eco-label for renewable energy

Green Economy describes a new voluntary label that certifies the share of electricity coming from renewable energy. 'WindMade' Eco-Label Now Covers All Kinds of Renewable Energy To encourage corporations to use renewable energy, last year wind-related organizations launched “WindMade” a label that certifies that 25% of their electricity comes from wind energy. Since businesses tend … Continue reading New eco-label for renewable energy →

New energy efficiency fund targeting business

James Murray for BusinessGreen describes a new corporate energy efficiency fund in the UK.  The bank is drawing on government’s Funding for Lending scheme to offer competitive loans to help businesses deliver energy efficiency improvements. RBS launches £200m corporate energy efficiency fund Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) will today launch a £200m (€246m) Carbon Reduction … Continue reading New energy efficiency fund targeting business →