California is America’s climate policy leader, home to both the country’s biggest clean energy industry and an internationally-linked carbon market being modeled across the world. To build on this momentum, California must go even further.

Electricity is crucial to our modern lifestyle, but gets very little of our attention. Soon enough, though, big players in the electricity space are expecting residential and commercial customers to sit up and take notice of new technologies and businesses coming to an electric meter or plug near them.

As more and more of China’s population moves into urban areas, it is imperative that cities are built with the right design practices, known as The 8 Principles, in mind so they benefit people, the environment and the economy.

With record drought and snowfall across the country, WaterSmart Software Inc. has raised $7 million in Series B funding, with a $21 million pre-money valuation, to help water utilities manage every last drop.

Comparing how electricity contracts, markets, and grid operations are evolving in California and the Midwest sheds light on changes that will be necessary as renewable sources like wind and solar begin to form the core of our electricity mix.

Energy Innovation’s Chris Busch spoke with Voice of America about how pollution sources differ between modern day Beijing and 1960’s Los Angeles. He points out that Beijing’s pollution mostly comes from coal production around Beijing, whereas Los Angeles’ pollution came from vehicle emissions due to the lack of exhaust emissions standards at the time.

During his State of the State address, Governor Brown proposed a goal of 50% renewable energy on California’s electric grid by 2030. Is this bold goal realistic? It all depends on how we choose to integrate renewables onto the grid.

Carbon dioxide emissions from the world’s energy producers stalled in 2014, the first time in 40 years of measurement that the level did not increase during a period of economic expansion, according to preliminary estimates from the International Energy Agency. The research suggests that efforts to counteract climate change by reducing carbon emissions and promoting energy efficiency could be working.

This article describes the social, environmental, and economic benefits of sustainable urban development. Studies have shown that mixed-use, pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods that value public transit development over private car use actually command higher property value. Around the world and in China, more of these people-centered cities are already emerging.

As states begin thinking about how they will comply with the EPA’s Clean Power Plan, energy efficiency should receive considerable attention as one of the most effective options.

Energy Innovation’s Policy Analyst CC Huang speaks with Natalie Tso from TRI’s Eye on China series about how walkability and other features improve quality-of-life in cities.

Energy Innovation’s Policy Analyst CC Huang speaks with Natalie Tso from RTI’s Eye on China series about what makes the most creative and sustainable cities.

Shifts in weather over the next few decades will most likely cost American companies hundreds of billions of dollars, and they have no choice but to adapt. The Risky Business Project is an unusual collection of business and policy leaders determined to prepare American companies for climate change.

Demand response technologies, which range from smart thermostats and water heaters in homes to sophisticated industrial systems, aren’t discussed as often as renewables or conventional fossil fuel technology, but they will be critical for the future of our electricity system.

A new Energy Innovation report, Cities for People in Practice, compares three sustainably developed communities that offer successful examples of the “cities for people” approach to urban development. By emphasizing public transit, walkability, and bicycling, these neighborhoods provide increased mobility and a higher quality of life for residents and visitors, but development costs have been comparable to traditional neighborhoods.

The way in which new cities are built will drastically determine whether they contribute to the reversal – or acceleration – of climate change. Proper design of urban form and transportation systems, especially in China, will be crucial for getting these cities right.

150 of America’s top energy experts today refreshed America’s Power Plan, a comprehensive policy toolkit designed to help federal and state policymakers, regulators, power market operators, as well as utility executives make smart decisions to steer the United States’ power sector transformation toward a clean, affordable, and reliable system.

Natural gas is the Rorschach test of energy policy. Depending on one’s point of view, it can be either an essential tool for meeting the challenge of climate change or another dirty fossil fuel that will speed the planet down the path to calamitous warming.

In Phoenix New Media’s weekly article series profiling experts on China’s cities, Hal discusses the importance of developing cities according to The 8 Principles, emphasizing people-centered urban form and low-carbon forms of transportation.