They could be a company in the energy space, they could be a company in manufacturing, they could be a consumer products company that's displacing an old and polluting technology.
During the initial phase of economic growth, the development-resource intensive industry and the polluting technology, combined with population growth, have significantly hastened economic growth, thereby resulting in increased environmental pollution.
Even the slimmed-down version Mr. Domenici is now promoting would underwrite old, polluting technologies that would do little to ensure a more secure energy future.
But in so-called "green chemistry" programs like this, he says, the aim is to reduce or eliminate the intrinsic hazard by finding replacements for polluting technologies.
There has long been tension over environmental issues between the developed and developing worlds, as those in richer nations complain that rapid adoption of polluting technologies in poorer countries is pushing the planet into crisis.
If governments make sure that investments in areas such as energy, agriculture, transport, infrastructure, forestry, water are climate-friendly and don't lock-in polluting technologies we would make huge progress towards limiting global warming to 1.5 or 2 degrees.
The International Energy Agency predicted recently that $4.2 trillion would be spent on new electric generating plants over the next 30 years worldwide -- an average investment of $140 billion a year -- and that most of these would be using outdated, highly polluting technologies.
The technology could curb rising CO2 emissions in the developing world, where the need to save money forces people to resort to polluting technologies such as diesel, Ainsworth said.
The replacement of outmoded, carbon intensive, polluting technologies with innovative, low carbon sustainable approaches pays off -- but not necessarily in 20 months or five years.
Bedouin culture is a mashup of ancient ways that once worked, with polluting technologies like diesel generators, and with enormous population growth (created in part by the good and holy impact of modern medicine).
Although it is well understood that continued use of traditional, polluting technologies in homes alongside cleaner stoves and fuels limits potential health and environmental benefits, the extent of traditional stove displacement required to meet air quality and fuel consumption targets is not clear.
