Big Threat; Solution is Underway!

Over the past few decades, our world has been continuously struggling with environmental issues. Recently global and regional climate change has emerged as the biggest and most urgent issue the global society has to face, no doubt various industries will be affected by this upheaval. Fortunately, awareness across the world over environmental issues has been growing to some extent simultaneously though hasn’t came to the desired level. In this entry I will try to address some of these issues which are highly related in being Green Innovation.

As a matter of fact fossil fuel consumption is being accused for having the biggest impact over global warming. New ways and innovative solutions such as wind mills, bioenergy and especially second generation biofuels which employ advanced technical processes can potentially displace a substantial amount of fossil fuel and eventually make the world better off.

However second generation is an ongoing progress and doesn’t seem economically viable in some future time therefore evaluated as some long-term promise. Though, it is an attractive topic and being developed rapidly. Currently the biofuel industry is dominated by mainly two countries; USA and Brazil (OECD 2004, 2007). In his State of the Union speech on January 23, 2007, President Bush set the goal of producing 35 billion gallons of renewable and alternative fuels by 2017, citing the need for independence from foreign oil since oil prices has been showing high volatility and this pattern seems to persist.

Besides many car manufacturers have welcomed this new era by hosting different technologies and adapting new innovative solutions. One example is Swedish car manufacturer Saab which believes that one viable direction is to move towards ethanol. Saab has developed the 9-5 BioPower model which runs on biofuel ethanol for the Swedish market, where about 80 percent of Saab’s sales are now BioPower models, and Saab is promoting sales in other European markets and extending BioPower to other models (Saab’s official website).

It can be said that green innovation is growing rapidly. I strongly believe that by relying on green innovation the followings will actualize soon; recycling waste, diversifying the sources of energy and not but least reducing CO2 emissions and other pollution.

References:
OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) (2004) ‘Biofuels for Transport; an International Perspective’, International Energy Agency
OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) (2007) ‘Biofuels for Transport: Policies and Possibilities’