At a Project Syndicate climate change meeting this week, billionaire George Soros announced a $1 billion investment in clean-energy technologies and the establishment of the Climate Policy Initiative. This new organization, which Soros will donate $100 million over the next 10 years, will advise and develop climate change policy in the U.S., Brazil, China, and Europe.
The Soros announcement comes in the same week that Americas Quarterly published its new issue on the environment. In it, five experts, when asked how to best protect the environment, addressed the need for greater public knowledge of environmental policies.
Increased public understanding of the consequences of a lack of action are critical for moving forward climate change legislation in the United States and to a global consensus when countries meet in Copenhagen in December. But the prospects for significant action on climate change this year are appearing to be fading. Pre-Copenhagen talks in Bangkok, Thailand, wrapped up without much consensus and only one more round of talks (in Barcelona, Spain) are scheduled before December’s gathering.
