Green California

What can Snohomish County leaders learn from California? Be green, not green with envy!

New statistics released in the 2010 California Green Innovation Index, document California’s increasing global leadership in green innovation, cleantech venture capital investment, and energy productivity. Based on this research we can conclude that California’s green economy is one of the few areas of the economy that is growing in the current downturn. New data also show that more businesses are opening in California than are closing or leaving.

The Index, produced by Next 10 and prepared by Collaborative Economics, tracks California’s history of policy and technology innovation and resulting economic and environmental gains or losses. Top findings include:

California Is A Global Leader In Green Innovation

• California has attracted $11.6 billion in cleanteach venture capital (VC) since 2006, accounting for 24 percent of total global investment.

• In the first half of 2010, the state attracted 40 percent of global cleantech VC exceeding the first half of 2009 by two-and-a-half times.

• California is the top state in patent registrations in green technology outpacing second-ranked New York by 150 patents between 2007 and 2009.

California Continues To Raise Its Energy Productivity Freeing Up Dollars For Businesses And Households To Spend in The Economy, Which Creates New Jobs

• Between 2002 and 2007, electricity productivity of manufacturers improved by 13 percent in California and dropped by ten percent in the rest of the nation.

• As a result of efficiency improvements, each Californian used 20 percent less energy in 2008 than in 1970 while little progress has been made in the rest of the country.

California’s Economy Is Reducing Its Dependence On Carbon As Total Emissions Level Off And Per Capita Emissions Drop

• For every dollar of GDP generated in 2008, the state’s economy required 32 percent less carbon than it did in 1990.

Download the California Green Innovation Index Here.

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