Climate Change

The growing set of renewable energy technologies, programs and financing schemes that customers are seeing today include claims that you can go “off the grid” for $30 per month. At VX2017, energy leaders from the regulatory, utility, and business community came together to confirm the realities, the true costs, and the societal impacts of distributed generation, home storage, and an “interactive grid”.

California State Senator Wieckowski opines on his SB 246's work to improve statewide resiliency coordination, as well as other accomplishments as Chair of the Senate Environmental Quality Committee.

At the recently officially opened La Kretz Innovation Center (the home of the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator), leaders from the California Air Resources Board (CARB) co-hosted a valuable roundtable discussion event focusing on how state policies are driving technological innovation in California.

Last week, Pope Francis joined a long line of his predecessors by issuing new Catholic teachings on a contemporary subject. The 184-page encyclical, called “Laudato Si’” or “Praise Be To You: On Care for Our Common Home” called on people across the world to address the serious threat of climate change. Pope Francis intertwines religious texts and science, making the case for anthropogenic warming as well as other harms caused to the planet by humans. In these excerpts selected by VerdeXchange News, Pope Francis urges nations to join together through international agreements, transforming their economies to prevent further destruction.

Maryanne Weiss, president of Gustare Ltd. and CEO of VerdeXchange Arizona, has penned an op-ed on the importance of a sustainable economic relationship between Arizona and Mexico. She argues that collaboration and productive teamwork are necessary for the growth of the region. Weiss points out that two G20 nations sharing a border surely offers an opportunity for collective endeavors, around climate and otherwise, that must not be missed. To learn more about VX Arizona, visit www.vxaz.com.

David Heurtel is Québec’s first Minister of Sustainable Development, Environment, and the Fight Against Climate Change. After over a year of overseeing this comprehensive mission, Heurtel spoke with VX News about the growing movement of subnational entities collaborating across countries in order to build an international green economy. In particular, he comments on the thriving cap-and-trade relationship between Québec and California that accommodates the needs of the two very different regions, as well as lessons learned about how to implement a successful cap-and-trade system. He also explains why in Québec, environmental action transcends politics.