During the week of June 14, 2009, news continued that equity index provider, MSCI Barra would likely upgrade Israel’s current “Emerging Market” status to that of “Developed Market” before the end of 2009. Globes reported that the Israel United States Binational Industrial Research and Development Foundation (BIRD-F) is creating a new program to fund joint projects in the cleantech sector and it was suggested that greenhouse gas emission predictions might be too low. For these and the rest of this week’s stories, see below.
Investments
1. BIRD Fund now seeks cleantech projects
2. Israel MSCI upgrade could bring $2.1 bln – Merrill
Water
3. Light at the End of the Pipeline? Water Crisis 2009 Conference
4. Israel and Germany Launch Sustainable Irrigation Project in Ethiopia
Alternative Energy
5. GreenRoad Wins San Francisco Business Times’ Green Business Award
6. HCL CleanTech’s Cleaner Approach to Cellulosic Ethanol Production
Solar
8. The Next Solar Frontier: Distributed Inverter Architecture
Environment
9. Greenhouse gas predictions may be too modest
Author: Lisa Damast
Lisa Damast is an online marketing consultant by day and blogger of Israel technology by night. Her blog, Israel Innovation 2.0, provides news and analysis of Israeli technology companies in the enterprise software, Web 2.0 and cleantech sectors. Lisa is also a co-organizer of the Jerusalem Business Networking Forum (JBNF). JBNF helps facilitate online and offline networking among business professionals in Jerusalem, including in the cleantech industry. Lisa made aliyah in August 2007 after receiving a degree in Communication Studies from Boston University in May 2007. Lisa can be reached at lisa (at) greenprophet (dot) com.