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World leaders have agreed to double the clean energy research funding they pledged in December as part of an international push to reduce carbon emissions, the White House announced on Thursday.  During the first meeting of the 21 countries involved in the Mission Innovation project this week, international members said they would increase the clean energy research and development funding the project is designed to facilitate.  According to the White House, member countries will now spend $30 billion per year by 2021 on clean energy research. 

The American Cleaning Institute (ACI), whose members include Dow Chemical, Procter & Gamble, SC Johnson and Seventh Generation among other major brands, has launched a voluntary initiative to improve the sustainability of cleaning products.

The Global Sustainable Electricity Partnership wrote a letter to government officials around the world on Sunday asking for long-term policies that support low-carbon energy sources. The partnership is composed of CEOs and chairmen from 11 of the world's largest utilities, including American Electric Power and Iberdrola. The companies said they generated about one-third of the world's electricity in 2014, 60% of which came from clean energy sources such as wind and solar. 

Despite news about Google and Apple investing in clean energy to power their huge data centers, Internet companies' renewable energy efforts are being held back by slow-moving, monopolistic utilities and sclerotic state policies, according to a report by Greenpeace released Tuesday.

580+ groups, businesses call for extension of clean energy tax credits  Over 580 organizations and businesses, including the American Wind Energy Association, have written a letter to Congress calling for the extension of tax credits relating to clean energy. "Businesses and investors need stable, predictable federal tax policy to create jobs, invest capital, and deploy pollution-reducing energy technologies," they wrote. 

Poland has issued the world's first sovereign green bond. The country plans to use the proceeds to finance projects related to renewable energy, clean transportation infrastructure, and more.

The League of Conservation Voters is spending $1 million on a TV ad campaign in support of five lawmakers with strong track records on clean-energy issues. The lawmakers, all Democrats, deserve recognition for their efforts, the group says.

Canadian Environment Minister Catherine McKenna has pledged to power 100% of the federal government's operations using renewables by 2025. "The government needs to be a key player to support the acceleration of clean growth -- not only through policy, but by investing and showing leadership," she said.

It will take a combination of clean energy expansion, policy change and increased accessibility to take grid 2.0 from concept to reality.

A group of 140 California firms have reiterated calls for legislators to deliver ambitious action on climate change with the release of a new declaration signaling their support for policies that serve to cut emissions and drive investment in clean tech.

A fund-matching program spearheaded by the EPA will help bridge the financial gap to implementation of the new climate policy. 

Clean power supplied almost all of Germany's power demand for the first time on Sunday, marking a milestone for Chancellor Angela Merkel's "Energiewende" policy to boost renewables while phasing out nuclear and fossil fuels. Solar and wind power peaked at 2 p.m. local time on Sunday, allowing renewables to supply 45.5 gigawatts as demand was 45.8 gigawatts, according to provisional data by Agora Energiewende, a research institute in Berlin. Power prices turned negative during several 15-minute periods yesterday, dropping as low as minus 50 euros ($57) a megawatt-hour, according to data from Epex Spot.

The House is expected to vote on a pair of Congressional Review Act resolutions that would stop the Obama administration's Clean Power Plan and a separate rule for new power plants. The Senate approved its own resolutions before the Thanksgiving break

Europe is on track to reduce its carbon emissions by 44% by 2050 -- well below the 80% to 95% reduction that experts say is needed to avert catastrophic climate change. That shows the need for long-term planning and more ambitious targets, campaigners say. "This trend shows the nonsense of pursuing only a business-as-usual scenario and underlines the need for coherent long-term policy development," says Adrian Joyce of EuroACE

WASHINGTON - The Trump administration announced Monday that it would take formal steps to repeal President Barack Obama's signature policy to curb greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, setting up a bitter fight over the future of America's efforts to tackle global warming.

The Environmental Protection Agency has stopped working on a voluntary compliance program for power plants looking to cut emissions under the Clean Power Plan. The Trump administration has pledged to overturn the CPP.

Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee rejected an amendment on Tuesday that would allow the federal government to allocate funds toward the UN Green Climate Fund. "The Green Climate Fund is the only multilateral institution that supports clean, resilient development around the world," said Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., adding that the US should be leading the initiative.

Another resolution, filed with J.M. Smucker, was withdrawn this week by co-filers Clean Yield Asset Management and Green Century Capital Management when the company agreed to stringent guidelines on the sourcing of palm oil.

Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has introduced a plan to bolster energy efficiency. The plan, intended to save families and businesses about $70 billion annually, seeks to roll back energy waste by one-third within a decade. "Deploying more clean energy isn't enough -- we also need to cut energy consumption, which will save families and businesses money and reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that drive climate change," say informational materials on the program. The Hill (2/2)