Governor Jerry Brown is drafting his own proposals to extend California’s cap-and-trade program, attempting to gain a two-thirds majority vote while assuaging industry and environmental campaigners. “The outlines of the deal… sound very positive, and will leave CARB significant scope to continue to improve the programme over time,” said Energy Innovation’s Chris Busch.

The China Development Bank Capital (CDBC) and two other partners have developed 18 guidelines to help China urbanise in a green and sustainable manner. CDBC is said to be the largest source of urbanisation funding in China.

A new set of guidelines titled “Green and Smart Urban Development Guidelines” have been published through a collaborative effort by the China Development Bank Capital, the biggest source of urbanization funding in China, Energy Innovation, a San Francisco based green solutions consultant, and Energy Foundation China, a grantmaking charity organization.

The new “Green and Smart Urban Development Guidelines” feature 18 principles that apply to every city in China. There are recommendations for curbing sprawl, spurring transit-oriented development, creating mixed-use neighborhoods and increasing public space.

Set in a climate of greenwashing and the unneeded building of novel new cities just because they are labeled green, comes a new set of urban design guidelines that specify how a green and smart city should look and what it should be capable of.

California is a bellwether state in environmental and energy matters. The most recent illustration is the promulgation of Assembly Bill 802 and The Clean Energy and Pollution Reduction Act of 2015.

Instead of focusing on fixing diesel cars, Musk and his colleagues said, Volkswagen should be required to put its resources toward becoming a zero-emissions car company.

Elon Musk signed a letter urging California emissions regulators to require that Volkswagon put the resources it would have used to fix their cars instead into transitioning to a zero-emissions car company.

Communications expert Susan Hassol presents her top list of reasons to be hopeful about climate change and recommends four websites with resources that help people understand potential solutions to climate change issues

Energy Innovation’s Energy Policy Simulator lets you model over three dozen different energy policies—from fuel economy standards to extending the life of existing nuclear to rice cultivation measures—to see how much they will cost and what impact they will have on greenhouse gas emissions.