The Best And Worst Green Innovations
CNBC European Business:
1. Plug-in
hybrid cars
A better bet than small internal combustion engines, these ‘next generation’ hybrids have batteries that can be plugged into an electric source and both an electric motor and a backup internal combustion engine – not to mention that the cost to power a vehicle with electricity is estimated at one-quarter that of petrol.
2. Geothermal heating
All the rage in suburban Stockholm and spreading, partly thanks to TV design shows.
3. Carbon
trading
Stringent cap-and-trade of carbon rights, with all industries participating, to include all buildings (since buildings account for a large share of carbon emissions), and with forestry and land use included for the first time.
4. Emissions
reduction
Sectoral approaches in the developing
world – emissions-reductions pacts made by industries like iron, steel and cement, which spew roughly 35% of developing country emissions
5. Wind
power
Offshore wind power – costs are dropping 20% with each doubling of capacity.
6. Solar
power
Concentrating solar power – using dishes or reflective glass curved mirrors, CSP is a large-scale way to generate power equivalent to a wind farm, as opposed to the small-scale production of solar panels.
7. Electric
cars
With green electricity to power them, and assuming that new sources of lithium are discovered for the batteries,
which may not
be the case.
8. Second-gen biofuels
While commercial development is a ways off, two large-scale pilot plants are underway in Canada and Germany. These new biofuels may some day be possible thanks to recent leaps in supply chain efficiency and in production of non-edible plant sources, such as stalks from wheat and other cereal plants.
9. Successor to the Kyoto Protocol
A global agreement on climate change that starts with cap and trade systems, with no industry or continent left out, with developing countries putting in place policies to reduce emissions domestically and forestry and land use included for the first time.
10. Light bulbs
Phase out incandescent light bulbs – a low-energy light bulb uses one-fifth the energy and produces one-fifth the greenhouse emissions of an incandescent bulb.
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