Westminster sails ahead as the White House stalls.

The five-page communique by the G8 - Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the US - repeats last year's "vision" to reach the target of cutting emissions by at least 50% by 2050.

But it added: "This global challenge can only be met by a global response, in particular, by the contributions from all major economies."

IT'S been a contrasting week for renewable energy advocates on opposite sides of the Atlantic. The UK announced plans to make wind power in its coastal waters "what the Gulf of Arabia is for the oil industry". Meanwhile, hopes for the solar equivalent in the American Southwest's largely uninhabited desert have been derailed by a tortoise.

UK prime minister Gordon Brown wants to build 3000 turbines around the UK's coast, part of a plan that will see renewable energy provide 30 per cent of the nation's electricity by 2020. The US Bureau of Land Management is less bullish. It plans to defer any further applications for solar power projects while it conducts an environmental review, with the fate of the desert tortoise one cause for concern. The review is expected to take about two years.

 

With rising fuel costs, the most favoured fields for venture capital money were solar thermal and second generation biofuels.

"This breakout quarter for solar thermal and algae companies indicates a growing appetite for clean technologies that can replace coal for electricity generation and oil for transportation fuels and help solve worldwide issues," explained Brian Fan, senior research director for Cleantech - a venture capitol group which promotes environmentally friendly investments.

"The scale of these problems are enormous. For example in 2008 the world's daily consumption of oil is 87 million barrels a day but production of bio fuels is just 1.35 million.

"When you look at electricity from renewable sources it is just 2% of the total power generation and the majority of power generation comes from coal."

Mr Fan said; "In the Bay Area there are battle hardened veterans who know how to build companies and bring new technologies to market successfully."

European companies, especially those in the UK accounted for 13% of investments followed by Chinese companies at 12%.

"The UK has been consistent in being a leader as far as Europe is concerned in this field with London as a financial centre and a relative maturity of investors," said Mr Fan,

"China meanwhile is interesting because of its massive scale and is set to emerge as a world power. They are keen to develop their own solutions to world problems and import from the West."