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NEW YORK, New York, US, September 27, 2006
(Refocus Weekly)
The second annual meeting of the Clinton Global
Initiative has resulted in numerous commitments to promote the use
of renewable energies.
The largest was a commitment of US$3 billion over ten years, made
by the Virgin Group of Companies with a first-year cost of $200
million. Sir Richard Branson believes that “all businesses,
especially those involved in transportation, energy and particularly
fossil fuels such as coal, must be at the forefront of developing
environmentally-friendly business strategies with a focus on
replacing traditional energy with energy coming from renewable
sources.”
“To demonstrate this, we are committing that all future proceeds to
the Virgin Group (dividends, realisations & share sales) from our
transportation interests (airlines & trains) will be invested into
renewable energy initiatives both within these transportation
companies and further investments in new biofuel R&D production,
distribution and other projects to tackle emissions related to
global warming,” he explained. The geographic scope will be Europe
and North America, with an immediate launch.
Earlier in September, Branson launched Virgin Fuels as an investment
vehicle for a series of international renewable energy investments
with an early focus on bio-fuels, rather than other alternative
energy sources or industrial power generation. The scope of the
investment strategy will include R&D of new bio-fuels suitable for
both ground transportation and aviation, and includes an initial
funding commitment from the Virgin Group of $400 million over three
years.
The first investment by Virgin Fuels is an investment in Cilion of
California, which was formed in June to build and operate ethanol
plants that are different from standard corn-to-ethanol plants.
Cilion plans to build seven plants by 2009 with a total of 440
million gallons per year capacity; the first three plants are
expected to be in California.
“Virgin is already utilising a host of environmentally benign
technologies including regenerative braking on its electric trains
which put 17% of the electricity they use back in to the national
grid of the UK, making them the most energy efficient long distance
trains in the world,” the commitment states. “In addition, the
company is switching its diesel trains to run on a biofuel mix, as
well as funding the world's most fuel efficient experimental high
altitude jet.”
“As a transportation company owner, we should be at the forefront of
developing new energy sources,” it explains. “This view was further
supported and influenced through discussions with like-minded people
such as Al Gore, Vinod Khosla, Ted Turner and Bill Clinton.”
The Clinton Global Initiative is a non-partisan event with an
emphasis on results. During the three-day conference, attendees will
participate in workshops and meetings focused on four main topics:
energy & climate change; mitigating religious and ethnic conflict;
poverty alleviation; and global health. The annual meeting was
attended by 1,000 leaders of business, government and organizations,
including 50 current and former heads of state.
Attendees will make specific commitments to address one of the
topics covered and will report to President Clinton on the progress
made throughout the course of the coming year. Attendees who do not
make or keep their commitment will not be invited to attend future
meetings.
Another commitment announced was $100 million from Kleiner Perkins
Caufield & Byers to “dramatically increase support for breakthrough
ventures in renewable energy and low carbon technologies” by
“recognizing and rewarding outstanding green policy innovators.”
Global Green committed to raising $1.5 to $3.5 million over the next
two years toward its effort to apply green building design criteria
and, where possible, net zero energy and climate neutral strategies.
At the plenary session this year, First Lady Laura Bush committed to
provide sub-Saharan Africa with clean drinking water through a $16.4
million pledge from USAID, PEPFAR, Case Foundation and MCJ
Foundation. The pledge will bring the ‘PlayPump’ water system to
1,000 communities and schools; the system uses merry-go-rounds to
pump water and are “fuelled by an endless energy source: children
and play,” explained Bush.
Other commitments related to renewables include ‘Bringing the
Benefits of CDM to Small Businesses/Homeowners’ by Christiana
Figueres; ‘Urban Heat Harvesting’ by Urban-Climate & Energy; ‘Solar
Water Pumping & Small-Scale Irrigation’ by Solar Electric Light
Fund; ‘Green Rewards’ by Redefining Progress; ‘ABN AMRO Renewable
Energy Fund’ by ABN AMRO Bank; ‘Renewable Energy for Sustainable
Development’ by Enel Group; ‘40 Million Gallon Per Year Biodiesel
Plant’ by Parsons & Whittemore Enterprises; and ‘Online Consumer
Resource Center for Green Homes’ by U.S. Green Building Council.
The Clinton Global Initiative had 114 commitments amounting to $5.7
billion; last year, the total was $2.5 billion in pledges.
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