The Brazilian government is seeking to award contracts in an auction tomorrow for natural gas- and coal-fueled power plants, reversing a drive that previously favored renewable-energy projects. It would lead to the first new thermal plants in three years, after the government scaled back such projects and awarded wind contracts starting in 2009 and solar energy earlier this year.

India, the world’s third-largest polluter, will spend at least $100 billion on climate-related projects but isn’t ready to follow China and the U.S., the top two emitters, in promising to limit its fossil-fuel emissions.

Africa’s first grid-connected biogas plant will begin supplying power by March 1, according to Johnnie McMillan, managing director of Tropical Power Kenya Ltd.

For a lesson in global energy history, look no further than Stockholm’s oldest power plant. Since 1903, Fortum Oyj’s Vaerta harbor site has generated power using coal, oil, natural gas and even considered nuclear. Now it’s phasing out the last coal furnace and replacing it with the world’s largest combined heat and power generator that will burn just wood chips and timber scraps by next year.

Enel SpA is putting the final touches on a yieldco that would hold its U.S. renewable energy assets, making it the latest power-plant owner to opt for a structure that frees up capital.

U.K. subsidies for RWE AG’s Lynemouth power plant face a European Union probe amid concerns government aid would give the company too much to convert the site from coal to biomass and may hamper competition.

Japan is considering reducing the incentives for developers of solar power projects by as much as 16 percent to reflect lower operating and maintenance costs.

Sweden and Norway agreed to boost their target for renewable energy production amid concerns the additional capacity will exacerbate a power glut and strain the region’s electricity grid.

A land claim brought against South Africa’s largest sugar farmer threatens to stop a 1.1 billion rand ($90 million) renewable-energy project that will produce electricity by burning leftover cane leaves and tops.

Beijing, where pollution averaged more than twice China’s national standard last year, will close the last of its four major coal-fired power plants next year.

U.K. electricity from low-carbon sources accounted for almost a quarter of the country’s generation in the fourth quarter as Drax Group Plc converted a second coal-power plant to burn wood.

Mexico has become the first developing nation to formally promise to cut its global-warming pollution, a potential milestone in efforts to reach a worldwide agreement on tackling climate change.

Investors have spent more than $2 trillion on clean-energy plants in the past decade and last year added more renewable capacity than ever before.

Political deadlock over Australia’s clean energy future is prompting companies such as Vestas Wind Systems A/S and Acciona SA to increasingly turn to rival markets for growth.

Australia’s largest electricity producer committed to close its coal-fired power plants within 35 years as part of an effort to cut the nation’s dependence on the fossil fuel.

Scientists and economists including BP Plc’s former chief executive officer, John Browne, are inviting governments to join a $150 billion program that aims to make clean energy cheaper than coal.

The European Commission raised concern that the U.K. and France may not meet their 2020 renewable energy targets, saying the two countries should examine whether they’re doing enough to reach the goals.

In West Virginia, where workers have harvested coal seams for centuries, Pope Francis’ new warning about the risks of fossil fuels will find skepticism even among the faithful.

Stanford, Oxford and Georgetown universities have won praise for promising to purge their endowments of direct investments in coal, embracing the fight against climate change.

Stocks of clean-energy companies are proving to be better investments than those of companies that produce most of the Western Hemisphere's power, and are outperforming the rest of the stock market as well.

The evidence is found in the New York Stock Exchange Bloomberg Americas Clean Energy Index. Its 141 companies, all based in North and South America, returned 32.62 percent in the past two years. In contrast, the 40 conventional-energy companies in the Standard and Poor's 500 Energy Index returned 1.02 percent over the same period, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Clean energy also is beating the rest of the stock market. The Clean Energy Index is up 6.02 percent so far this year. Lagging behind are both the S&P 500 and the Russell 3000 Index, which gained 3.12 percent and 3.86 percent respectively in 2015.

German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel said 13 percent of power stations burning lignite, a cheap form of coal, would be phased out by 2021 under a program to cut power industry pollution. The government abandoned talks on proposals to impose a climate-change fee that the industry said would have forced mines and plants to close, threatening jobs.

Coal is having a hard time lately. U.S. power plants are switching to natural gas, environmental restrictions are kicking in, and the industry is being derided as the world's No. 1 climate criminal. Prices have crashed, sure, but for a real sense of coal's diminishing prospects, check out what's happening in the bond market.

Publicly, the United Nations climate-change talks look mired in disputes over everything from money to the length of the proposed agreement.

Executives from 13 major U.S. corporations are announcing at least $140 billion in new investments to decrease their carbon footprints as part of a White House initiative to recruit private commitments ahead of a United Nations climate-change summit later this year in Paris.

Companies including Apple Inc., Berkshire Hathaway Energy Co., and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. will join Secretary of State John Kerry and top administration officials at the White House for the announcement. In addition to pledges to cut emissions, provide financing to environmentally-focused companies, and reduce water consumption, the companies have said they will procure at least 1,600 MW of new, renewable energy. The White House said in a statement that it expects to announce a second round of similar pledges later this fall from additional companies.

The commitments are being announced as President Barack Obama is looking to build momentum toward a legacy-defining global climate accord in Paris. In addition to company-specific commitments, the corporate leaders on Monday will signal their support for a strong climate agreement out of the United Nations talks. They administration is using the pledges to set an example for companies to find ways to eliminate their carbon emissions.

Climate Talks

“As the world looks toward global climate negotiations in Paris this December, American leadership at all levels will be essential,” the White House said in a fact sheet detailing the announcement.

The administration’s actions are pushing the issue into the 2016 presidential debate. Hillary Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic nomination, released an energy strategy saying she would both defend and go beyond Obama’s efforts. Republican candidates have criticized the administration’s initiatives as costly to the economy and unnecessary.

Among the pledges, aluminum manufacturer Alcoa Inc. has agreed to reduce emissions by 50 percent from its 2005 levels, while agricultural giant Cargill Inc. says 18 percent of its total energy use will come from renewable sources.

Coca-Cola Co. said it would drive down the carbon footprint of its beverage production by 25 percent over the next five years, while Google says it plans to triple its purchases of renewable energy over the next decade. Berkshire Hathaway says it plans to invest up to an additional $15 billion in the construction and operation of renewable energy generators, while Bank of America Corp says it will increase its environmental business initiative by $75 billion over the next decade, according to the White House

Other participating firms include Wal-Mart, United Parcel Service Inc., PepsiCo Inc., Microsoft Corp., General Motors Inc.

The corporate commitments won’t be the administration’s only major climate announcement in the next few weeks. The Environmental Protection Agency is set to present final regulations that aim to reduce carbon emissions from power plants by 30 percent from 2005 levels by 2030 later this week.

While visiting Kenya over the weekend, Obama repeatedly praised the country for its efforts to address climate change, saying its efforts tor educe emissions “has put it in the position of being a leader on the continent.” And next month, the president will travel to Alaska for an international summit on Arctic climate issues.

©2015 Bloomberg News

For more, see Big Companies, Big Renewable Investments.

Less than two weeks after 175 nations signed the pivotal Paris Agreement on climate change, a question lingers: What happens now?

It’s never been more important to put powerful AI tools in the hands of the world’s leading medical researchers. That’s why we’re introducing MONAI, our latest initiative with King’s College London. This open-source AI framework for healthcare builds on the best practices from existing tools, including NVIDIA Clara, NiftyNet, DLTK and DeepNeuro. MONAI is user-friendly, Read article >

The post NVIDIA and King’s College London Announce MONAI Open Source AI Framework for Healthcare Research appeared first on The Official NVIDIA Blog.

NVIDIA today announced the completion of its acquisition of Mellanox Technologies, Ltd., for a transaction value of $7 billion. The acquisition, initially...

Dating apps may get all the press, but NerdWallet has been refining the art of financial matchmaking for more than a decade. The company provides its members with sound financial advice generated by machine learning algorithms. But as computing has advanced, so has NerdWallet’s ambition. Now the company is using AI to better match casual Read article >

The post Banking on AI: NerdWallet’s Recommendation Engine Matches Customers with Relevant Financial Products appeared first on The Official NVIDIA Blog.

NVIDIA will host a conference call on Thursday, May 21, at 2:30 p.m. PT (5:30 p.m. ...

NVIDIA Chief Scientist Bill Dally this week released an open-source design for a low-cost, easy-to-assemble mechanical ventilator. The ventilator, designed in just a few weeks by Dally — whose storied technology career includes key contributions to semiconductors and supercomputers — can be built quickly from just $400 of off-the-shelf parts, Dally says. Traditional ventilators, by Read article >

The post NVIDIA Chief Scientist Releases Low-Cost, Open-Source Ventilator Design appeared first on The Official NVIDIA Blog.

NVIDIA is expanding its long-standing collaboration with IBM to accelerate the deployment of edge networks. Businesses are deploying these networks around the world as they switch on IoT sensors and extract real-time insights from the masses of data they generate. Today, IBM announced new solutions for edge computing including the IBM Edge Application Manager on Read article >

The post Taking Point: IBM, NVIDIA Collaborate at the Network’s Edge appeared first on The Official NVIDIA Blog.

Days before a national lockdown in the U.S., Daniel McDonald realized his life’s work had put a unique tool in his hands to fight COVID-19. The assay kits his team was about to have made by the tens of thousands could be repurposed to help understand the novel coronavirus that causes the disease. McDonald is Read article >

The post Gut Instinct: Human Microbiome May Reveal COVID-19 Mysteries appeared first on The Official NVIDIA Blog.

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the world like few events before it. But for Shukun Technology, a response required “a minor change in our strategy,” according to its chief technology officer, Chao Zheng. That’s because Shukun, a startup founded by some of China’s brightest AI and medical minds, was busy refining its AI-powered platform to Read article >

The post Medical AI Startup Quickly Shifts Strategy to Fight COVID-19 Pandemic appeared first on The Official NVIDIA Blog.

NVIDIA Chief Scientist Bill Dally this week released an open-source design for a low-cost, easy-to-assemble mechanical ventilator. The ventilator, designed in just a few weeks by Dally — whose storied technology career includes key contributions to semiconductors and supercomputers — can be built quickly from just $400 of off-the-shelf parts, Dally says. Traditional ventilators, by Read article >

The post NVIDIA Chief Scientist Releases Low-Cost, Open-Source Ventilator Design appeared first on The Official NVIDIA Blog.

NVIDIA is expanding its long-standing collaboration with IBM to accelerate the deployment of edge networks. Businesses are deploying these networks around the world as they switch on IoT sensors and extract real-time insights from the masses of data they generate. Today, IBM announced new solutions for edge computing including the IBM Edge Application Manager on Read article >

The post Taking Point: IBM, NVIDIA Collaborate at the Network’s Edge appeared first on The Official NVIDIA Blog.

Days before a national lockdown in the U.S., Daniel McDonald realized his life’s work had put a unique tool in his hands to fight COVID-19. The assay kits his team was about to have made by the tens of thousands could be repurposed to help understand the novel coronavirus that causes the disease. McDonald is Read article >

The post Gut Instinct: Human Microbiome May Reveal COVID-19 Mysteries appeared first on The Official NVIDIA Blog.

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the world like few events before it. But for Shukun Technology, a response required “a minor change in our strategy,” according to its chief technology officer, Chao Zheng. That’s because Shukun, a startup founded by some of China’s brightest AI and medical minds, was busy refining its AI-powered platform to Read article >

The post Medical AI Startup Quickly Shifts Strategy to Fight COVID-19 Pandemic appeared first on The Official NVIDIA Blog.

Check here each week to keep up with the latest from John MacArthur's pulpit at Grace Community Church.

Check here each week to keep up with the latest from John MacArthur's pulpit at Grace Community Church.

Check here each week to keep up with the latest from John MacArthur's pulpit at Grace Community Church.

Check here each week to keep up with the latest from John MacArthur's pulpit at Grace Community Church.

Check here each week to keep up with the latest from John MacArthur's pulpit at Grace Community Church.

Check here each week to keep up with the latest from John MacArthur's pulpit at Grace Community Church.

Check here each week to keep up with the latest from John MacArthur's pulpit at Grace Community Church.

Check here each week to keep up with the latest from John MacArthur's pulpit at Grace Community Church.

Check here each week to keep up with the latest from John MacArthur's pulpit at Grace Community Church.

Check here each week to keep up with the latest from John MacArthur's pulpit at Grace Community Church.

Check here each week to keep up with the latest from John MacArthur's pulpit at Grace Community Church.

Check here each week to keep up with the latest from John MacArthur's pulpit at Grace Community Church.

Check here each week to keep up with the latest from John MacArthur's pulpit at Grace Community Church.