A new study by the Center for American Progress finds that climate change constitutes a major threat to south Florida, and that there's an urgent need for action to head off disaster. Here's the report's conclusion:

The Supreme Court issued an important ruling earlier today in a case that affirmed FERC Order 745, which "calls for demand response to be compensated like other generators in wholesale energy markets." The 6-2 verdict in favor of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) was, among other things, a major victory for U.S. providers of energy conservation services (e.g., EnerNOC, whose "jumped as much as 84 percent in New York trading"). It is simultaneously a major defeat for big power producers such as "NRG Energy Inc., FirstEnergy Corp., Talen Energy Corp., Calpine Corp., Public Service Enterprise Group Inc. and American Electric Power Co."

Even as a blizzard bears down on the Washington, D.C. area, we received news yesterday that 2015 was the hottest year on record - by far. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA):

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) recently released a report on the "benefits and impacts of U.S. Renewable Portfolio Standards." This week, they also held a webinar discussing the report. Key points from the webinar, which you can view (see video to the right), include:

Recently, we summarized a fascinating, 132-page report by Citi, which confirmed (yet again) that switching from fossil fuels to clean energy makes sense not just environmentally, but also economically. Now, we've put together an easy-to-read, easy-to-share infographic, highlighting the key findings from Citi's report. If you're interested in receiving the infographic, just click on the image below, provide us with your contact information, and we'll email it to you right away. Thanks!

We thought that a quick guide to a few cleantech podcasts would be helpful for communicators, analysts, investors and industry professionals who want to stay on top of this dynamic, far-flung sector. Here are a few that jumped out at us; please let us know if there are others you listen to and would recommend in the comments below.

These are exciting times in the energy storage industry, with technology rapidly improving and costs falling fast as the sector scales up. A just-released report by Greentech Media (GTM) examines this in detail and shows how it's likely to continue.

A recent report by a group of independent, international experts on sustainable development examines "Pathways to Deep Decarbonization" - namely, "how individual countries can transition to a low-carbon economy consistent with the internationally agreed goal of limiting anthropogenic warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius (°C)." The report, which is well worth reading, was prepared by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (launched by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in August 2012; describes itself as "an independent global network of research centers, universities and technical institutions aiming to mobilize scientific and technical expertise for problem-solving in relation to sustainable development") and The Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI) (a non-profit policy research institute based in Paris). Here are a few key findings.