M·CAM CEO Expands Dialogue on Integrating Environmental Technology into Economic Stimulus

Date:  Mon, 2009-02-02

M·CAM CEO Expands Dialogue on Integrating Environmental Technology into Economic Stimulus

Charlottesville, VA – February 2, 2009 &#8211&#8211 Executive Chairman of M·CAM, Dr. David Martin, has just released his report on the structural challenges facing policymakers and industries seeking to integrate “green technology” into the current market. This report has been discussed extensively with European civil society, finance, and political entities and now is being made available to the general public.

When Green Meets Gold: A Call for Integral Wealth Ethics in the Climate and Energy Dialogue

Dr. David E. Martin Executive Chairman, M·CAM Fellow, Batten Institute, Darden Graduate School of Business Administration, University of Virginia October 10, 2008

We’re here again. Economic uncertainty, energy volatility, environmental stresses, and a latter·day epiphany that “something must be done”. While the actors have new faces and the urgency has a new fervor, something gnaws at our consciousness – haven’t we been here before? Why didn’t solutions emerge last time? Who is to blame for getting us into this mess?

First, some facts. Since the 1970s, over 30,000 patents have been issued around the world for innovations and inventions in non·fossil fuel alternative energy technologies including solar photovoltaic, biomass, wind, tidal, geothermal, hydrogen, fuel cells, to name a few. Major research institutions and corporations – including energy giants like ExxonMobil, BP, Royal Dutch Shell, ConocoPhilips, ChevronTexaco, Total Elf Fina – have seen massive investments made in alternative energy, large proprietary estates amassed, only to have them slip anonymously into abandonment or expiration having never fulfilled their commercial or social intent. The public utility infrastructure and delivery giants, too, have made considerable investments and, like the energy companies, have seen these slip into oblivion. Ironically, at precisely the moment when the world is reawakening to its “inconvenient truth” that something must be done to break our Promethian imperative to burn fossils, Europe, the U.S., China, and Japan face a perplexing dilemma. In short, the very future that we seek has been protected, abandoned, or expired – patents now expired and in the public domain – leaving commercial interests and public policy makers in a puzzling state. And no one is sure why adoption of promising technologies didn’t happen the last several times we were in energy shock. However, this time it’s different in one important way – namely, with the collapse of the financial markets, insurance and institutional investment in particular – the real systemic obstacle can be identified and engaged.