Bob Leonard - Climate Risk Manager • 03.13.2017
Pope Francis, long known for his commitment to environmental stewardship, has taken his call for climate action one step further. He now owns an electric car, a Nissan LEAF. The LEAF was given to the Pope in late February by German asset manager and mathematician Jochen Wermuth. The Pope’s Nissan LEAF can travel up […]
Bob Leonard - Climate Risk Manager • 03.10.2017
Clean energy continues to overtake fossil fuels as the main source of new energy investments around the world. About 70 gigawatts of new solar generation and 59 gigawatts of new wind power came online in 2016. This amounts to $287 billion in new clean energy investments in 2016, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. We can see […]
Bob Leonard - Climate Risk Manager • 03.08.2017
Pioneering biologist and writer Rachel Carson (May 27, 1907–April 14, 1964) catalyzed the modern environmental movement with the groundbreaking publication of Silent Spring in 1962, but the spark for this slow-burning revolution was kindled a quarter century earlier, while 28-year-old Carson was working for what would later become the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. When […]
Bob Leonard - Climate Risk Manager • 03.06.2017
Almost all procurement managers now look for sustainably-produced material in their purchases, according to a new survey – which comes as analysis of corporate deforestation commitments shows a dramatic rise in disclosure. Also, companies that hopped early onto the sustainability bandwagon say it’s paying off financially. Authors of the Sustainable Procurement Barometer say consumers […]
Bob Leonard - Climate Risk Manager • 03.03.2017
The World Meteorological Organization announced Wednesday that Antarctica hit a new record high recorded temperature of 63.5 degrees F. The record, confirmed by the World Meteorological Organization, breezes past the previous record of 59 degrees. Meanwhile, real time data released from the National Snow and Ice Data Center showed only 2.131 million square kilometers of […]
Bob Leonard - Climate Risk Manager • 03.01.2017
Dramatic cost reductions mean wind and solar can now compete on price with conventional sources of energy in many parts of the world. This turns the spotlight onto the so-called “whole system costs” of integrating renewables into the electricity system, which include backing up intermittent generation and strengthening grids. In a report published this week, […]
Bob Leonard - Climate Risk Manager • 02.27.2017
With Spaceship Earth hurtling through space at great speed, imagine if someone told you (a passenger on that ship) that the main oxygen systems were failing because of how food was being grown. What would you do upon receiving that dire warning? An imminent oxygen loss just happens to be current fact. Industrial agriculture […]
Bob Leonard - Climate Risk Manager • 02.24.2017
Bionic leaves, a hot solar cell, and other picks for the most notable renewable energy strides in 2016. Clean energy made critical strides in 2016. The Paris Climate accords went into effect, the price of solar installations continued to drop, investments in renewable energy soared, offshore wind finally got under way in the United […]
Bob Leonard - Climate Risk Manager • 02.22.2017
The impact of climate change on threatened and endangered wildlife has been dramatically under reported, with scientists calling on policymakers to act urgently to slow its effects before entire species are lost for good. New analysis has found that nearly half (47%) of the mammals and nearly a quarter (24.4%) of the birds on […]