Additionally, the main difficulty with financing green energy in the private sector is that investments require lots of cash and returns are uncertain.

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He insists that industry, as well as governments, must tackle the core issues, rather than trying to rid themselves of responsibility through measures like carbon offsetting - where individuals or companies balance their carbon output by financing green projects.

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This week saw the European Investment Bank officially announce a Mediterranean Solar Plan Project Preparation Initiative (MSP-PPI), aimed at providing a green energy framework for financing efforts across member states.

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The debt crisis in the West means that it is very hard for Western green energy companies to find financing for their technologies, then to market them as finished products.

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The green waste collection would be self-financing through money saved in landfill fees, councillors said.

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Green Banks are intended to provide low cost financing to clean energy projects.

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Armed with his patents and financing from Crocker First National Bank in California he established a small laboratory in San Francisco on Green Street, at the foot of Telegraph Hill.

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