2009: The Year of the Carbon Market

Happy new year, everyone!

A big thank you to the few thousand of you who regularly read this column, and thanks for the kind words many of you have sent my way over the past few years.  I hope these rambling writings continue to be useful for you…

Everyone probably already has a lot of resolutions already in mind for the new year, but allow me to suggest a few additional ones (these are mostly easy, so you can quickly increase your “success rate” if you add them to your list):

• Spend 2 minutes reading this very good article on how 2009 is going to mean big things for carbon markets.

• Spend 3 minutes filling out the Cleantech Investing readers’ prediction questionnaire.

• 2009 will also be The Year for Cleantech Networking (tm)...  Spend 1 minute signing up for the Cleantech Investing group on Facebook, to connect with your fellow C.I. readers.

• Spend 1 minute signing up for the Renewable Energy Business Network (REBN) group on LinkedIn, to connect with fellow entrepreneurs, researchers, and businesspeople in cleantech.  Also, look for REBN events in your city in 2009, where you can network in that most antiquated of modes: Face-to-face.

• Spend 10 minutes adding your thoughts to the ongoing conversation around “What’s wrong with cleantech VC”...  Read the presentation here and add your thoughts in the comments section, or email me your thoughts.  Thanks to all of you who continue to contribute to the dialogue…

• If you haven’t already, spend 3 minutes adding the following sites to your RSS reader or other reading list:  Clean Break...  Cleantech Blog...  Two Steps Forward...  EcoGeek.org...  Switchboard...  and of course, Green Light.  (You can also find links to this column’s RSS feed, or to sign up for email delivery, in the sidebar to the right under “Admin”)

• Spend 5 minutes at the EERE’s Alternative Fueling Station Locator...  And ponder why, with the billions upon billions spent on producing biofuels, it’s so tough to find a convenient retail option near you where you can actually purchase the stuff for your vehicle—and even when you do find such fuels, how can you know how sustainably (or not) they were produced?

• Spend 5 minutes flipping through the early release ppt of the DOE’s 2009 Annual Energy Outlook... And ponder how we’re going to possibly address our looming climate change and energy supply challenges if fossil fuels are really going to remain 79% of the U.S.‘s energy supply mix by 2030.  Major systematic changes are clearly needed…

That’s it!  Just 30 minutes’ worth of to-dos over the holiday weekend, and you can cross 8 new year’s resolutions off of your list.  Best wishes for a safe and peaceful and prosperous 2009 all around…