Oil Rich Nations Investing In Future - by Elisabeth Rosenthal
Arab Emirates - With one of the highest per-capita carbon footprints in the world, these oil-rich emirates would seem an unlikely place for a clean energy revolution. Still, the region's leaders know energy and money, having built their wealth on oil. They understand that oil is a finite resource, vulnerable to competition from new energy sources. So even as President-elect Barack Obama talks about an energy revolution as America's route out of recession, Persian Gulf nations - including the seven states that make up the emirates, plus Qatar and Saudi Arabia - are already making a concerted push to become the Silicon Valley of alternative energy.
They are aggressively pouring billions of dollars made in the oil fields into new technologies. They are establishing billion-dollar clean-technology investment funds. And they are putting millions of dollars behind research projects at universities from California to Boston to London, and setting up "green" research parks at home - green referring to the movement to reduce waste and clean up the earth.
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