Hewlett Packard (HP) tops the IT industry for sustainable operations in this year’s 17th Edition of the Guide to Greener Electronics, produced by Greenpeace.

HP is followed by Dell, Nokia, Apple and Philips among the 15 leading mobile phone, TV and PC manufacturers ranked on Energy, Greener Products and Sustainable Operations.

HP won first place because of high scores on measuring and reducing carbon emissions from its supply chain, reducing its own emissions (9% since 2009) and advocating for strong climate legislation.

91% of its first-tier suppliers report on emissions. Along with Dell, it got the highest scores for is paper procurement policy – they are the only companies that have policies not to buy from suppliers linked to illegal logging or deforestation.

Areas for improvement include e-waste, where HP needs to expand its take-back program in countries without regulations. Although it scores high for disclosing its and suppliers emissions and setting targets to reduce them, it needs to set higher reduction goals of at least 30% by 2020 and to use more renewable energy.

HP is close to its goal of phasing out PVC plastic and brominated flame retardants in products.

Dell rose from #10 to #2 because it has the most ambitious climate target of reducing emissions 40% by 2020 (from 2007 levels), as well as its strong policy on sustainable paper sourcing.

Although it gets top marks for disclosure of externally verified GHG emissions from operations, it needs to make more progress toward its goal as well as increasing use of renewable energy, which has actually gone down as a percent of global electricity purchases (26% in 2009, 21% in 2011). Dell also has a relatively comprehensive take-back program.

After three years in first place, Nokia slipped to #3 because although it reached and exceeded carbon reduction targets through 2011, it doesn’t have a plan going forward.

It reduced GHG emissions 10% in 2009 and 18% in 2010 from  2006 levels and scores high for the energy efficiency of its products. All its products are free of hazardous substances except for antimony compounds, and it has a comprehensive voluntary take-back program in 100 countries for cell-phones.

Since many of the companies have improved practices, particularly on eliminating hazardous substances in products,  since Greenpeace first did the ranking in 2006, they are upping the bar by challenging them to reduce their carbon footprint in manufacturing, in their supply chain and through the end-of-life phase of their products, improve sources for minerals and to set ambitious goals for renewable energy use.

“After many of the world’s leading electronics companies rose to the challenge of phasing out the worst hazardous substances, we are now challenging them to improve their sourcing of minerals and better managing the energy use throughout the supply chain,” says Greenpeace International campaigner Tom Dowdall.

Electronics products are both resource and energy intensive to produce, notes Greenpeace, and leading companies need to  reduce their own energy use and use their influence in support of clean energy legislation. The ranking penalizes companies if they are members of trade groups that work against stringent energy efficiency standards and renewable energy.

The Obama Administration announced Tuesday its intention to regulate CO2 emissions from power plants for the first time. The new rule, nimbly titled “Greenhouse Gas New Source Performance Standard for Electric Utility Steam Generating Units,” would allow the Environmental Protection Agency to create emissions standards for new power plants.

It is another end-run around a Congress that has balked at passing cap-and-trade legislation or other remedies to curb greenhouse gases.

The Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that the EPA had the right and responsibility to determine whether greenhouse gases endangered public health, making them subject to regulation under the Clean Air Act. The agency released its “endangerment” finding, a prelude to such regulation, just before the 2009 Copenhagen summit on climate change.

Since then, however, the White House and the EPA have delayed proposing new regulations, under intense pressure from Republican lawmakers, who have tagged the agency as a source of “job-killing regulation.”

The White House has said that if Congress failed to act on carbon emissions, it would eventually step in.

The move could appeal to the president’s base at a time when he is taking many other unilateral steps to move his agenda, and as his reelection bid kicks into high gear.

David Doniger, policy director of the Climate and Clean Air Program at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said in a statement, “Setting carbon pollution standards for new power plants is an important first step. President Obama campaigned on moving America to a clean energy future. Cutting dangerous carbon pollution from the nation’s dirty power plants is an essential part of fulfilling that pledge.”

It is likely that the appearance of the rule in the White House agenda will only intensify the political slugfest over the regulation of greenhouse gases. When the EPA first announced that curtailing these gases would fall under its purview, the business community erupted in a fury that continues today.

“We don’t believe that unelected bureaucrats should be doing what Congress was elected to do,” said Nicolas Loris, policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation, which has battled the EPA regulation of carbon from the outset. “The economic costs of regulation by the EPA or by a cap-and-trade system far outweighs any environmental benefit we would get from these measures.”

Asked how the Heritage Foundation would like to see this problem addressed, he added: “First we need to step back and look at what the real problem is: CO2 isn’t black smoke that is emitted from factories; it’s a colorless, odorless gas. Does it contribute to global warming and climate change? Sure. But it’s the role of Congress to figure out the best way to address those effects in a way that protects our economy.”

Charlotte Baker, press secretary for the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, stated, “The committee plans to review the rules recently submitted to OMB and remains focused on finding ways to promote common-sense regulations that will protect our environment without destroying jobs or driving up electricity prices for families and job creators.”

The committee is chaired by Congressman Fred Upton, who spearheaded a House effort to block the EPA from regulating CO2 and other greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act.

Nov. 9 (Bloomberg) — The European Investment Bank may raise the price of loans to renewable energy projects to bolster capital as demand for funds rises, the bank’s climate chief said.

“You could say that this year’s projects have to pay a bit more for next year’s borrowers, but it all goes back into the business,” Chris Knowles, head of climate change and environment in the European operations directorate at the Luxembourg-based bank, said in an interview.

The bank, which loaned a record 19 billion euros ($25.8 billion) to climate-related projects last year, continues to offer a “significant funding advantage” to borrowers, especially for project financing, he said.

The European debt crisis made it harder for banks to raise money and squeezed their lending capacity. State-backed lenders almost by default increase funding for renewable energy activities when banking sector problems constrain private-sector lending, Knowles said.

That means “there’s a huge demand for our resources at the moment and our lending capacity will not automatically grow in line with demand,” he said.

KfW, the German state lender, opened a 5 billion-euro loan program to finance offshore wind while Eksport Kredit Fonden, the Danish export credit agency and PensionDanmark A/S are offering 10 billion-kroner ($1.8 billion) of loans for Danish export orders such as turbines.

The EIB’s lending for renewable projects in the EU and accession countries rose to 5.6 billion euros last year. The bank increased clean energy lending even though it reduced aggregate loan volumes in 2010 under a plan to return to levels prior to the 2008 financial crisis, Knowles said.

‘Unchanged, Undiminished’

The EIB’s commitment to funding clean energy projects is “unchanged and undiminished” though it continues to reduce overall lending under that plan, Knowles said.

The EIB offers loans on more favorable terms including longer times than commercial banks. The bank agreed to lend 52 million pounds ($83 million) to Blue Transmission Walney 1 Ltd., a group including Macquarie Capital Group and Barclays Infrastructure Funds Management Ltd., last month to buy a 105 million-pound link bringing power from the Walney 1 wind farm off the U.K. to shore.

Dong Energy A/S, SSE Plc and OPW, a company comprised of PGGM NV, a Dutch pension administrator and the Ampere Equity Fund, managed by Triodos Investment Management BV, own Walney 1.

THE Territory has enough geothermal energy to replace its gas-powered electricity 1600 times, a consultancy says.

HDR, a company run by geophysicists and geologists, said the estimate had been made by a team of international experts after mapping so-called hot rocks throughout the world.

Managing director Graeme Beardsmore said Australia had enough geothermal energy within 5km of the surface to power Australia’s electricity for 50,000 years.

He said 395,000 megawatts of green power could be generated if just 2 per cent of the estimated heat energy underground was recovered with existing technology.

“This is clean, renewable energy that is realistically accessible today with existing drilling and power conversion technologies,” he said.

“It is one of the most abundant sources of renewable energy available and is more than sufficient to replace coal and gas power supply.”

Australia has the biggest project in the world – a 25MW pilot plant is being built at Innamincka in South Australia. The project was set back three years when the well collapsed.

Dr Beardsmore said the well had collapsed because of an engineering problem, and not a weakness in geothermal technology.

He said hot rocks was a “compelling solution” to tackling climate change and to meeting our growing energy demands.

Melbourne-based HDR has led the mapping of potential geothermal energy throughout the world.

Dr Beardsmore said the international map of hot rocks, known as the protocol, would give investors “greater certainty”.

“Conventional geothermal energy has until now been a difficult proposition because of the lack of information available in order for investors to do the necessary risk assessments,” he said.

“The megawatt statistics generated under the global protocol now provide a tangible knowledge base for proper investment..”

The future of the World Heritage listed stromatolites in Western Australia is under threat from climate change.

The stromatolites are about 2 billion years old and are the oldest living organisms on the planet.

Hamelin Pool, located in Shark Bay in the North West, contains one of the world’s best examples of living stromatolites.

The stromatolites, that look like mushroom-shaped rocks, thrive in highly saline environments.

Seagrasses that help protect the stromatolites at Shark Bay by keeping the surrounding water almost twice as saline as usual sea water, are being damaged by runoff from floodwaters.

In the past 12 months, there have been three floods, causing fresh water run into the sea.

Di Walker from the Oceans Institute at the University of WA says it is critical to try to limit runoff when the area floods.

“We’re trying to make sure that those plants are actually in a healthy condition,” she said.

“What we need to do is actually to see if we can improve the land management practices which is why we’re working with the catchment managers to try to get them to tell us what they think we can do to help prevent those sort of runoff events.”

Australian geothermal firm Greenearth Energy Ltd. (GER) said its unit has been awarded a contract by Newcrest Mining Ltd. (NCM) for geothermal brine testing services at its gold mining operations in Papua New Guinea.

The Pacific Heat and Power Pty unit will evaluate the low temperature brine that is currently under-utilized, using a specially designed test rig, Greenearth said in a statement. The project is part of Newcrest’s efforts to maximize the value from the geothermal heat resources that are available at the site in Niolam Island, according to the statement.