Early ripples from Gore's speech

As announced at the Investor Summit on Climate Risk (sponsored by Ceres and the UN Foundation), a collection of 50 US and European institutional investors have pledged $10 billion to clean technology investment and incorporating LEED standards into their real estate projects... days after Al Gore told investors that a carbon tax was growing more and more likely to be instituted and that their polluting investments would be considered "subprime."

Say what you will about Al Gore's messiah-like status in the international environmental community, but when the man can get money flowing like this towards investments in clean tech, it seems like he's doing more good outside of politics than he ever could've done in the White House. Spurring private innovation is as important to making headway in technological and efficiency measures as governmental support is, and the growing level of private support for clean tech will only continue to grow as the threat of a carbon tax or cap system grows.