Given the short history and dynamic state of the green bond market, wide variation exists in external review processes — based on regions, frameworks and evaluation parameters. Green bonds can fund energy, transportation, buildings or natural capital such as conservation. Work so far on certification shows how investors can keep building confidence and volume in this form of financing.

Developers in the United States believe that there is still room to maintain an adequate level of return for their power-purchase agreements (PPAs). Electricity prices in recent years have plummeted both for PPAs and in the wholesale market. Even so, developers believe that they can benefit from the expected decrease in capital costs and the increasing clean energy interest from companies.

At Transforming Transportation 2019, more than 1,100 participants joined World Bank Group and World Resources Institute (WRI) to discuss strategies to make new mobility more sustainable and affordable for everyone. On Jan. 17, experts from the financial sector talked about how to finance new mobility efficiently.

Across the nation, new elected officials have been sworn in this January. They can alter the trajectory of clean energy projects in the years to come. Incoming governors may preside over expanding clean energy markets.

Nonprofits face a unique challenge in the solar-development market. According to a report by Smart Electric Power Alliance, the demand for community-shared solar is soaring, but supply cannot catch up due to a lack of financing options.

China is leading a global shift toward renewable energy. For the third time in a row, China has ranked in the 1st place in EY’s Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Index.

“There are no jobs on a dead planet,” said Sharan Burrow, general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation. Burrow is vice-chair of The B Team, a coalition of business and civil society leaders that was founded by Richard Branson and Jochen Zeitz. In an attempt to address the dual dangers of economic injustice and environmental disaster that Burrow’s remark references, The B Team launched the Pledge for a Just Transition to Decent Jobs in August 2018.

Commercial buildings should be prime customers for companies selling energy efficiency services. But the commercial energy efficiency market has failed to grow close to its full potential.

In 2013, Chinese president Xi Jinping announced the beginning of an initiative that he would later dub the “project of the century.” The Belt and Road Initiative is a massive infrastructure-integration project undertaken by the Chinese government to improve the connectivity between Asia, Europe and Africa. It effectively covers more than half of the world’s population and a third of the world’s GDP.

With so much happening at a state level in solar power and energy efficiency, it is difficult to keep up with the variety of approaches and perspectives. So the Yale Center for Business and the Environment is here to help by launching “States of Clean Energy Innovation,” an online news hub with customized clean energy data and stories about the United States and Puerto Rico. Each state is different. Each state has thoughtful leaders working on our transition to clean energy. And each state deserves its own dashboard.