Obama’s cruise to the White House puts the wind back in green sails
The UK’s The Guardian is reporting Obama’s cruise to the White House puts the wind back in green sails.
The election of Barack Obama has put the wind back into the sails of the renewable energy sector, where investor confidence had been badly punctured by the credit crisis. Clean technology and green energy stocks have soared as City analysts predict a major boost from the incoming president.
Solar Integrated Technologies rose by 30% yesterday after increases of 22% by Renewable Energy Corporation and 16% by the wind turbine maker Vestas in the 24 hours before, when they were helped upwards by oil prices returning to above $70 a barrel.
Obama has promised to invest $150bn over 10 years in renewables as part of a wider plan to increase US energy security amid fear of oil shortages, while also reducing the country’s carbon emissions in a bid to tackle global warming – and create jobs during an economic downturn.
Kate Hampton, head of policy at Climate Change Capital, a UK-based investment manager, was one of many who welcomed the poll result as a massive step forward for renewables.
“We cannot overstate how divisive the Bush administration was, how far behind the US now is in the transition to the low-carbon economy and how high expectations are now that Obama is the president-elect,” she said.
First up I congratulate Mr Obama on his astounding landslide win, and full credit to him for recognising that the USA under Bush had simply gone too far, too fast, down a very nasty track indeed. Obama is pretty much the anti-Bush and the whole world celebrated, not only that he is the first Black President, but that, by electing him, the whole world could give America another chance to do the right thing.
There’s a bunch of things the USA could do right now to make up for lost time; ratifying Kyoto, (as well as treaties on the rights of children, treaties opposing manufacture of land-mines,) and signing up to the International Criminal Court in The Haague would make an awesome start. They could pay their debt to the UN, apologise for Iraq and conduct a proper, gloves off investigation of the culture and events that lead to Abu Ghraib. And having done all of that, get to work, with the world’s help, in rebuilding and greening of the USA’s, and thus the World’s economy.
Not wishing to sound like either a militant Marxist or loopy believer in destinies but it’s quite exhilarating when you think about it that we’ve just seen Capitalism skitter onto the footpath as half the world’s banks and financial institutions got bought, for a song, by their respective governments and suddenly financial oversight and industry regulation are recognised as being, not only warm fuzzy concepts to soothe the chattering classes, but essential to the proper running of the system. Rampant industrialisation, fuelled in part by Capitalism’s runaway-train like pursuit of market expansion, and in part by plain old graft and corruption gave rise to the climate problems we face and, just as the clock is about to strike midnight, here comes Obama and with him a vast sea of brilliant minds, unthinkable amounts of money and the world’s most sophisticated economy and the will to actually address both of these fundamental challenges to life as we know it. Life is going to change, and for many in the world it is going to get much much better. The election of Obama has given vent to a amazing outpouring of optimism, just at a time when the outlook seems so bleak. His challenge is to harness that and make clear, bold moves towards a better future for everyone, American or not. — DS