The World Bank indicated in its new report "Building Competitive Green Industries: The Climate and Clean Technology Opportunity for Developing Countries" that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in developing countries are set to undergo significant growth and create more jobs in the field of clean technology. Anabel Gonzalez, senior director for the World Bank's Global Practice on Trade and Competitiveness, said developing home-grown clean-tech industries will help developing countries more effectively increase the adoption of low-cost clean energy and drive sustainable economic development.

Europe’s utilities are re-evaluating their business models due to the energy transition. Members of POWER-GEN Europe’s Advisory Board consider how a reliance on fossil fuels is no longer politically desirable, forcing utilities to transform their portfolios to adapt to radical change.

With the UK general election now over and a majority Conservative Party government in place, the re-elected Prime Minister David Cameron has now named key members of the government charged with steering the UK’s clean energy policy over the coming years.

Ongoing growth in renewable energy investment and deployment is creating jobs worldwide — and lots of them. This job growth is helping governments address a fundamental economic problem plaguing developed and developing countries alike. Deploying renewables rather than fossil fuel capacity is also reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and other environmental pollution that holds the threat of a sixth great extinction.

Carbon emissions in 2014 remained at the previous year’s levels of 32.3 billion metric tons — a milestone that points to the impact worldwide renewable energy investment is having in the face of a 1.5 percent annual increase in global energy consumption, according to a new report from REN21. The tenth annual Renewables 2015 Global Status Report cites “increased penetration of renewable energy” and improvements in energy efficiency as the chief reasons for the noted emissions stabilization.

Makai Ocean Engineering Inc. has built an ocean thermal-energy conversion demonstration plant in Hawaii.

Alternative energy mutual funds (MF) racked up extremely robust gains in the past year. Returns range from a low of 16 percent, to a high of 64 percent for a mutual fund that is heavy into solar investments. Exchange traded funds (ETF) also did well, but returns are much more variable. They range from a loss of 34 percent for a carbon ETF, to more than doubling of a solar ETF.

October 17 marks the 40th anniversary of the start of the 1973 Arab Oil Embargo — an event that arguably launched the United States' ongoing pursuit of a national energy policy.

Oracle Corp. Chief Executive Officer Larry Ellison plans to build one to power the Hawaiian island he bought last year. EBay Inc. has one to run a data center. The University of California at San Diego and the federal government have invested tens of millions of dollars in the technology.

This month marks the anniversaries of two notable events, decades apart yet related in terms of historical impact, awareness of vulnerability, and challenge to business as usual: the Arab oil embargo 40 years ago (Oct. 19-20, 1973) and Superstorm Sandy, which hit the Northeast on Oct. 29 last year. Both events sparked a national and global focus on two concepts I’ve been hearing quite a bit about in recent months: adaptation and resilience.

The European Commission has offered up some new guidelines about managing electricity markets among its Member States, offering direction for design and support schemes for renewable energy, managing capacity, and addressing demand at the consumer level to mitigate new generation investments -- which, while technically not binding, likely will inform future regional environmental and aid policies.

What’s the next big opportunity for geothermal? According to panelists at last week's Renewable Energy World North America international geothermal session, it’s emerging markets. Kicking off the two-hour discussion, special guest Agnes Dasewicz of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) explained the Power Africa initiative, which launched in June 2013. USAID is attempting to unlock energy growth in six countries: Kenya, Tanzania, Ghana, Nigeria, Liberia, and — of particular interest to the geothermal crowd — Ethiopia.

There are no plans for new coal plants to be built in the United States. This opens doors for the geothermal industry possibly more than ever before in U.S. history. In an Energy Information Administration (EIA) forecast to 2018, coal was one of the top-cost commissioning technology options; geothermal was one of the lowest.

According to the latest "Energy Infrastructure Update" report from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's Office of Energy Projects, solar, biomass, wind, geothermal, and hydropower "units" provided 394 MW — or 100 percent — of all new electrical generation placed in-service in November 2013. There was no new capacity during the month from natural gas, coal, oil, or nuclear power. Renewable energy sources also provided 99 percent of all new electrical generating capacity in October.

European Union leaders intend next month to agree on a timeline for developing energy and climate targets for 2030, delaying a final decision on the polices, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.

The U.K. risks power shortages because utilities may react to Europe’s toughest carbon emissions rules by closing plants without replacing them.

Clean energy investment rose by 9 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier on surging demand for rooftop solar panels from the U.S. to Japan.

Japan said the U.S.’s proposed cuts in greenhouse-gas emissions from its power plants is a bold step to tackle climate change.

California and Quebec, which together created the largest carbon market in North America this year, may come away empty-handed as they woo northeastern U.S. states to join their system.

President Barack Obama pledged deeper U.S. cuts in greenhouse-gas emissions and China will for the first time set a target for capping carbon emissions under an agreement between the world’s two biggest economies.

Warren Buffett wants to tell you the best time to wash your clothes. Or at least his energy company in the U.K does. Buffett’s Northern Powergrid Holdings Co. is working with Siemens AG to test a so-called smart grid that has the ability to control when consumer appliances will be used in the home.

Global emissions were unchanged last year, the first time that’s happened amid economic growth in four decades, according to the International Energy Agency.

President Barack Obama ordered the federal government to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent from 2008 levels over the next 10 years by shifting to renewable energy sources such as solar power.

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.

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?

The United States and China on Sept. 3 formally joined the Paris Agreement in a ceremony in Hangzhou, China, ahead of the G20 Summit. President Obama and President Xi both deposited their country’s official instrument with United Nations Secretary, General Ban-Ki Moon.

Elections can only be representative if all members of society, including women, play a role, the head of the U.N. mission in Afghanistan said Wednesday.

There's a chance for Iran to reach a comprehensive nuclear agreement that would benefit its people if the rights steps are taken, President Obama said Thursday.

Nearly half of the declared chemical weapons in Syria have been removed from the country, a U.N. monitoring mission said Thursday.

A U.N. special envoy on Palestinian issues said Friday it was time for the International Court of Justice to assess what he said was Israeli colonialism.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said Friday a Sudanese member of its staff was killed by a stray bullet in the restive Darfur region.

The provincial government in Pakistan's Sindh province is planning a literacy program to reach women and girls in remote areas via cell phones.

Post-employment victimisation and the effects of Jessemy and Onu. The Court of Appeal has recently held that post-employment victimisation is unlawful, overturning the previous decision in Rowstock Ltd & another v Jessemey  and providing he...

Employment Tribunal statistics for the period October to December 2013 have shown a sharp decline in the number of Employment Tribunal claims brought since the fees regime was introduced last Summer. The statistics: in summaryThe latest statistics s...

Since the removal of the default retirement age, there have been surprisingly few cases giving guidance as to when an employee might be lawfully retired.  Some employers have implemented their own ‘Employer Justified Retirement Age’...

Employers have a duty to carry out document checks on individuals before employing them.  The aim of the checks is to ensure that individuals have the legal right to work in the UK.  Correctly carrying out document checks gives employers a...

In the latest, and what we can now assume is the last, chapter in the long running Seldon case concerning compulsory retirement, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has upheld the Tribunal’s decision that compulsory retirement, in this case i...

Bonus schemes operated by employers will often make eligibility dependant on matters such as attendance. A recent case illustrates how such schemes can fall foul of disability discrimination law. Background The Land Registry operated a discretionary...

Imposing changes to terms and conditions of employment is rarely a straightforward exercise.  As well as dealing with issues such as collective and individual consultation, the risk of unfair dismissal and breach of contract claims, and (in som...

UK Pensions Speedbrief: Age discrimination challenge to judicial pension scheme succeedsThe Employment Tribunal has handed down its

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? ? ? ?First detail published on employer cost cap and actuarial valuati...

SummaryThe Deputy Pensions Ombudsman has rejected a complaint by an academy against the administering authority of its Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) fund about the funding methodology used to allocate assets to the Academy when it was initi...

The University of Reading will be reporting to the Government on the success of the code for leasing business premises. The Code for Leasing Business Premises in England and Wales 2007 (‘the Code’) was published on 28 March 20...

A landlord is able to hold a tenant to an informal agreement to renew its short-term leases. Recent cases have brought to people's attention that leases for short periods - up to three years - do not need to be executed under seal. In fact, they do...

Two recent cases involving easements highlight the risks of leaving part of the arrangement undocumented. Two recent cases raised the doctrine of derogation from grant in relation to the grant of an easement - one successfully and the other not. A ...

Developers can no longer assume that they will be entitled to connect new developments to public sewers for the disposal of service water. The draft Flood and Water Management Bill, intended to improve how the country prepares for and responds to f...

Land deals are currently one of the most scrutinized areas of public procurement, and the correct application of the public procurement rules to land transactions still poses one of the greatest challenges for public bodies. ...