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.

RWE AG, the German utility whose coal-fired plants make it Europe’s largest carbon emitter, officially started the company’s largest renewables project on Thursday: a wind farm in Liverpool Bay off Britain’s coast.

Trillions of dollars will be invested in renewable energy over the next 25 years, driving some of the most profound changes yet in how humans get their electricity. That's according to a new forecast by Bloomberg New Energy Finance that plots out global power markets to 2040. 

Renewable energy will draw almost two-thirds of the spending on new power plants over the next 25 years, dwarfing spending on fossil fuels, as plunging costs make solar the first choice for consumers and the poorest nations.

Long-frustrated wind and solar developers in Australia can now get to work on more than A$14 billion ($11 billion) in projects after a new renewable energy target passed parliament.

The secretary general of the United Nations is frustrated with the pace of negotiations for what’s intended to be a crucial agreement limiting global warming.

Climate change pledges submitted so far from the world’s leading economies won’t be enough to keep the planet from warming dangerously, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Monday in New York.

Proposals to reduce heat-trapping emissions need to be “a floor, not a ceiling,” he said.

The global increase in temperatures will exceed 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) under the national pledges already submitted to UN, Ban said. That’s the goal scientists and the UN have set to avoid the worst effects due to global warming.

The proposals submitted to date “will not be enough to place us on a 2-degree pathway,” Ban said.

Without any changes to global emissions, the world is on track to warm by 4 degrees Celsius or more, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Climate Change Janos Pasztor said earlier this month.

World leaders have five months to go before a meeting of almost 200 nations in Paris that’s intended to seal a new global pact to cut planet-warming carbon emissions. If successful, the agreement would be the first ever to require both developed nations like the US and growing economies like China to address climate change.

“The pace of UN negotiations are far too slow,” Ban said. “It’s like a snail’s pace.”

The U.S., the world’s biggest historic source of greenhouse gases, pledged earlier this year to cut its emissions by as much as 28 percent by 2025. The European Union has promised a 40 percent cut by 2030. Several other major economies, including Australia and Japan, have yet to submit climate plans to the UN.

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.

Germany has installed about one-third less onshore wind power capacity so far this year than during the same period in 2014, new analysis shows.

Q2 of 2015 saw a large increase in the generation of electricity from solar PV in the UK, with the growth having a significant impact on electricity market prices and other supply factors.

The UK increased its power generation from on-site biogas plants by 40% in 2014, according to a survey by the Department of Energy and Climate Change.  

As a carbon-neutral energy source, biomass technology is helping organizations generate electricity and heat while reducing their carbon footprint and greenhouse gas emissions.

Clean, renewable energy is the single most needed technology by the millennial generation. Not only is it the key to slowing global warming and climate change, but it also solves a host of other problems, such as respiratory diseases and national security.

Papua New Guinea recently became the first country to formally submit the final version of its national climate action plan (called a “Nationally Determined Contribution,” or NDC) under the Paris Agreement. The small Pacific nation’s plan to transition to 100 percent renewable energy by 2030 is no longer just an “intended” nationally determined contribution (INDC) — it is now the country’s official climate plan.

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

Brexit; It’s been the buzz word dominating the media recently and it’s likely to continue for some time. The UK’s decision to leave the EU has left both supporting sides of the ‘leave’ and ‘remain’ campaign in a somewhat collective state of uncertainty as to how this decision will impact the country right now and in the future years.

It was a gamble that went spectacularly wrong for Tory Prime Minister David Cameron: Allow the UK to decide through a national referendum on their future participation in the EU and hope that they choose to remain.

The G20 meeting in Hangzhou, China, this September brings together leaders of the world’s largest economies for the first such gathering since the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate. G20 Leaders Summits traditionally focus on economic growth and financial stability, but since more than 190 countries collectively agreed to greatly enhance mitigation of the causes and impacts of climate change, the need to tackle a changing climate and foster clean energy has become a clear economic and business reality.

In the case of the Fossil Fuel Industry, et. al. VS Earth, et. al., I find myself asking—not for the first time—is justice delayed, justice denied? It should come as no surprise that I am convinced it is.

The World Bank has approved US$390 million in additional financing to be used by Pakistan's Water and Power Development Authority for extensions of its Tarbela hydroelectric plant.

By the time this column is published, oral arguments in the legal challenge to the Clean Power Plan will have already been made. The en banc panel of 10 appeals court judges is not likely to render its decision before the New Year.  No matter the opinion, it will be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Chile's Schwager Energy and China-based Shenyang Yuanda Commercial & Investment Co. signed a memorandum of understanding on Nov. 3 to build the 3-MW Los Pinos run-of-the-river hydroelectric plant in southern Chile's Lagos region, according to BN Americas.
 

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.

When it comes to teaching autonomous vehicles, you can never have too much training data. That’s where Nikita Jaipuria and Rohan Bhasin come in. Jaipuria, a research scientist in computer vision and machine learning, and Bhasin, a research engineer, spoke with AI Podcast host Noah Kravitz about their roles at Ford Motor Company, as well Read article >

The post The Driving Force: How Ford Uses AI to Create Diverse Driving Data appeared first on The Official NVIDIA Blog.

Professional pyrotechnician Zack James is lighting his next fuse under the tractor market. The founder of Rabbit Tractors develops autonomous farm robots intended for multiple tasks and to be scaled up in number as needed, challenging traditional tractors. Based in northwest Indiana, Rabbit Tractors is a so-called swarm farming startup among a field of like-minded Read article >

The post Field Day: AI Startup Cultivates Robo Tractors for ‘Swarm Farming’ Disruption appeared first on The Official NVIDIA Blog.

Get Amped for Latest Platform Breakthroughs in AI, Deep Learning, Autonomous Vehicles, Robotics and Professional Graphics

For decades, car owners looking for the latest technology features have had to wait for the arrival of a new model year. Now, their daily ride can always be state of the art. The Xpeng P7 is an all-electric sports sedan developed from the ground up for an intelligent driving future. Introduced this week in Read article >

The post Beyond Horsepower: Xpeng P7 Shows What’s Next for Intelligent Transportation appeared first on The Official NVIDIA Blog.

Two chance encounters propelled remote direct memory access from a good but obscure idea for fast networks into the jet fuel for the world’s more powerful supercomputers. The lucky breaks launched the fortunes of an Israel-based startup that staked its fortunes on InfiniBand, a network based on RDMA. Later, that startup, Mellanox Technologies, helped steer Read article >

The post How RDMA Became the Fuel for Fast Networks appeared first on The Official NVIDIA Blog.

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 founder and CEO Jensen Huang sent the following letter to our enlarged employee base when the Mellanox acquisition closed earlier this week: ​Hi everyone, I hope all of you and your families are well and safe during these extraordinary times. On March 11 last year, we announced plans to buy Mellanox, the world leader in Read article >

The post Letter From Jensen: Building the New NVIDIA Together 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.

Cloud data centers are evolving to an architecture that is accelerated, disaggregated and software-defined to meet the exponential growth in AI and high performance computing. To build these modern data centers, HPC and networking hardware and software must go hand in hand. NVIDIA provides the leading accelerated computing platform. Mellanox is the high-performance networking leader, Read article >

The post Riding a Cloud: NVIDIA Acquires Network-Software Trailblazer Cumulus 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.

Starting this month, NVIDIA’s Deep Learning Institute is offering instructor-led workshops that are delivered remotely via a virtual classroom. DLI provides hands-on training in AI, accelerated computing and accelerated data science to help developers, data scientists and other professionals solve their most challenging problems. These in-depth classes are taught by experts in their respective fields, Read article >

The post NVIDIA Deep Learning Institute Instructor-Led Training Now Available Remotely appeared first on The Official NVIDIA Blog.

If you think flying commercial is stressful, consider the air cargo industry. Unlike passenger flights, which are often booked and paid for months in advance, cargo shipments are typically booked just 10 days before the planned departure. And customers don’t have to pay until they drop off their shipments. However, even when customers create a Read article >

The post American Airlines Delivers the Goods, with Data Science Workstations appeared first on The Official NVIDIA Blog.

As NVIDIA’s vice president of worldwide AI initiatives, Keith Strier is thinking on a global scale. He leads an initiative called AI Nations, a worldwide program that helps government leaders and stakeholders develop plans to implement AI to advance national priorities and drive economic growth. Strier spoke to AI Podcast host Noah Kravitz about AI Read article >

The post Around the World in AI Days: NVIDIA’s Keith Strier Talks AI Nations 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.

Cloud data centers are evolving to an architecture that is accelerated, disaggregated and software-defined to meet the exponential growth in AI and high performance computing. To build these modern data centers, HPC and networking hardware and software must go hand in hand. NVIDIA provides the leading accelerated computing platform. Mellanox is the high-performance networking leader, Read article >

The post Riding a Cloud: NVIDIA Acquires Network-Software Trailblazer Cumulus 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.

Starting this month, NVIDIA’s Deep Learning Institute is offering instructor-led workshops that are delivered remotely via a virtual classroom. DLI provides hands-on training in AI, accelerated computing and accelerated data science to help developers, data scientists and other professionals solve their most challenging problems. These in-depth classes are taught by experts in their respective fields, Read article >

The post NVIDIA Deep Learning Institute Instructor-Led Training Now Available Remotely appeared first on The Official NVIDIA Blog.

If you think flying commercial is stressful, consider the air cargo industry. Unlike passenger flights, which are often booked and paid for months in advance, cargo shipments are typically booked just 10 days before the planned departure. And customers don’t have to pay until they drop off their shipments. However, even when customers create a Read article >

The post American Airlines Delivers the Goods, with Data Science Workstations appeared first on The Official NVIDIA Blog.

As NVIDIA’s vice president of worldwide AI initiatives, Keith Strier is thinking on a global scale. He leads an initiative called AI Nations, a worldwide program that helps government leaders and stakeholders develop plans to implement AI to advance national priorities and drive economic growth. Strier spoke to AI Podcast host Noah Kravitz about AI Read article >

The post Around the World in AI Days: NVIDIA’s Keith Strier Talks AI Nations 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.