Just before Thanksgiving, the prestigious investment banking firm Goldman Sachs announced a broad-reaching environmental policy.

Goldman Sachs Environmental Policy

The policy contains several important pledges. Most tangibly, Goldman aims to make $1 billion available for investments in renewable energy (and this is not mere talk, as Goldman bought the wind developer Zilkha earlier in 2005). Goldman promises to take environmental considerations more seriously when considering investment opportunities, for instance refusing to invest in projects that do not comply with local environmental laws. Goldman also intends to become more active in shaping environmental public policy, including the establishment of a think-tank to promote market-based approaches for dealing with environmental concerns.

But perhaps the biggest impact Goldman can have on the environment is by placing pressure on their clients — the largest corporations worldwide. Because Goldman is the channel to literally trillions of dollars in the global capital markets, what Goldman says really matters to clients. Goldman’s clients need to keep the doors open to the investor community, with a good reputation. If Goldman follows through on their environmental pledges, and uses “carrot-and-stick” with its clients to improve their environmental performance, then real beneficial action is likely to in fact take place.

Goldman joins GE and Wal-Mart as major global corporations with huge influence publicly committing to improving the environment in the past year. Titans of industry such as these will be critical in dragging the laggards — the big oil companies, auto manufacturers, electric utilities — into more responsible and proactive environmental practices.

Even among green enthusiasts there seems to be a feeling that our best efforts could be cancelled out by the growing energy demands of the developing world – particularly the massive economies of China and India which between them comprise 40 percent of the world’s people. This fear may prove unjustified if current trends continue and recent developments are carried to fruition. For example:

• China’s solar industry already provides water heating for 35 million buildings.
• India’s pioneering use of rainwater harvesting brings clean water to tens of thousands of homes and the country already has very active solar and wind industries.
• China has contracted to convert over 10,00 diesel buses in 5 cities to run on hydrogen/natural gas.
• The Chinese state energy company has pledged to spend at least $2.5bn on renewable energy projects over the next five years.
• Just this month, China has passed a law that sets tariffs in favor of non-fossil energy such as wind, water and solar power and has set a goal of 15% renewables by 2020 – a massive target given the size of the economy!

Given China’s continued dependence on coal, some might say this is not sufficient but represents a huge commitment by economies struggling to develop and without repeating all the mistakes of the industrialized world. The WorldWatch Institute’s State of the World 20006 has a Special focus on India and China that reports on some of the strategies that China and India are starting to implement. It might just be that the Chinese and Indian pioneers are providing models for a new and sustainable economy and that we in the West are about to be leapfrogged!

When most people think of renewable energy, they think of hydro, or solar, or wind, or (increasingly) biomass. A few people think of geothermal. But that’s pretty much the list of renewables.

The most forgotten form of renewable energy, and one which I think holds more long-term promise than any other, is ocean-based energy.

The amount of energy that can be found in the ocean — thermal gradients, waves, tides, currents — is enormous, many times the amount required by the human species. As long as we have a sun and a moon (and when we don’t, we’ll have much bigger worries), then the ocean will contain a gargantuan amount of energy. And, it’s always there, day or night, almost completely predictable, unlike many other forms of renewables.

Of course, the challenge is to harness this energy in an economically viable fashion, and without causing adverse effects on marine life, aesthetics, shipping traffic, and so on. Scientists and engineers have been working on various technical approaches to capturing ocean energy for over two decades, and a lot of work remains to reach commercial viability. But, I believe that at least one of these technical approaches will eventually pay off in the next decade or so, and a big payoff it will be.

Believe it or not, unlike the masses and even energy industry experts, the Energy Policy Act of 2005 didn’t forget ocean energy technologies, including provisions for mandatory purchase requirements from ocean energy sources.

How did legislators manage to include ocean energy when everyone else had been overlooking it? Amazingly, it seems to have been because the companies in the ocean energy field — almost all early-stage privately-held companies, no big firms that you might have heard of — came together of their own volition to form the Ocean Renewable Energy Coalition. Web site Bully for them.

Let’s keep our eyes on ocean energy. I’m looking for much bigger things from the ocean in the future. It won’t remain forgotten for long.