Google Data » Katy Bacon

U.S. job growth, powered by the sun

Katy Bacon — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 17:12:00 +0000

Solar energy has long been touted as a clean alternative to traditional electricity generation, but building a clean energy economy will also create jobs. Thanks to federal and state policies to support renewable energy, it's estimated that the solar industry will create hundreds of thousands of green jobs in coming years. Based on a study by Navigant Consulting, and with the help of Google.org and Google Earth Outreach, our friends at the Solar Energy Research Education Foundation (SEREF) have developed a U.S. solar jobs map in Google Earth. You can also view this as a KML in Google Earth.

The U.S. solar industry is expected to support more than 440,000 permanent, full-time jobs, including many in the manufacturing and construction industry, by the year 2016. The solar jobs growth layer shows where these jobs are likely to be created across the country. You'll see that many of these jobs are being created in states that have experienced the worst of the current economic crisis, including Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Ohio.

Clicking on the solar icon in each state shows annual job growth over an eight year period, as well as how the three most common solar technologies—photovoltaics, concentrating solar power, and solar water heating—stack-up in terms of job creation.

In addition to exploring the job growth numbers, you can view a 3-D simulation of the job growth over time and compare the solar energy resources of each state with their job growth potential. In the additional data, you can also see solar installations, like photovoltaic panels and solar water heating at the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center in Atlanta and a solar power tower at the Solar Energy Generating Systems (SEGS) in Southern California, to see what they actually look like in Google Earth.

Because predicting job creation in the future relies on advanced economic modeling, it can be difficult to predict where all the solar jobs will be created. Nearly 30,000 jobs will likely be created across the other 29 states that aren’t explicitly covered in this map. That means solar energy truly is capable of creating a green economy for the entire U.S.

This map was created as part of SEREF’s and Google.org’s shared objective to rapidly scale-up the use of solar technologies in the U.S. so that the environmental, economic, and national security benefits of renewables can be realized.

To check out the map and learn more about solar energy, please visit the solar jobs map site.

Posted by Dave Bercovich, Google.org and Karin Tuxen-Bettman, Google Earth Outreach

Answering the question: “Was this a successful project?”

Katy Bacon — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 21:06:00 +0000

A guest post from Howard White, Executive Director, International Initiative for Impact Evaluation:

In the foreign aid business, it's very important to answer the question, “Was this a successful project?” because donors need to know where to target their scarce resources. Unfortunately, the answer to this question has frequently been, “Well it must be, we spent loads of money and employed lots of consultants." This problem has been most recently highlighted by the Centre for Global Development’s report, "When Will We Ever Learn?". Billions of dollars are spent on development interventions each year with little evidence on whether they work or not.

I started my own academic career looking at aid impact at the macroeconomic level. In my own defense, I can say that, starting with my PhD, I criticized the over-aggregated cross-country regression approach, arguing instead for careful country-level analysis of macro impact that could pick up on both context but also the many channels – both money and ideas – through which aid affects development outcomes. Having published a couple of widely ignored books pursuing this approach, I became increasingly convinced that aid impact had to be examined from the bottom up. That is a systematic analysis of, if not all interventions, then enough to be able to make authoritative statements about whether the aid program is working or not. This might seem like a lot of work; but then so is measuring GDP and we do that.

But there are two problems to implementing a bottom up approach. The first is that evaluation design is often poor when it comes to measuring impact. The second problem is that most agencies do not systematically compile evidence across interventions. It is symptomatic of a culture of producing evaluations as a bureaucratic requirement, not as a management or learning tool.

It is to tackle these two problems - the lack of evidence and the failure to synthesize what evidence there is into policy-relevant lessons – that the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie) has been created. Google.org has been one of our early funders.

The bulk of 3ie funding is going to help expand our knowledge about what works by supporting new impact studies, focusing on what we call the enduring questions of development. We are in the process of a consultative exercise to identify these questions – to which you can contribute by visiting our website. We will also have an open window for studies on other topics, for which the first request for proposals went out recently. Please visit our web site and join the conversation!

Economist video about ASER

Katy Bacon — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 20:06:00 +0000

The Economist has just released a fascinating video showing Google.org grantee Pratham in action, conducting ASER (Annual Status of Education Report). The video colorfully illustrates a major issue in India's education system: even when they attend school, students aren't necessarily learning. So, rates of illiteracy are quite high. Watch the video here:

Posted by Katy Bacon, Google.org Team

Sharpening our focus in global development

Katy Bacon — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 18:39:00 +0000

As you might expect from a company founded by two engineers and an infusion of start up cash, Google believes in the power of entrepreneurs and small businesses to drive innovation and spur job growth. So it wasn't surprising that when we considered areas to support with our philanthropic efforts, helping entrepreneurs in developing countries rose to the top. This past January we launched an initiative to Fuel the Growth of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs). SMEs in developed countries account for half of GDP and two-thirds of jobs, but they're largely absent in developing countries. We wanted to explore how we could help drive capital to these high-growth businesses. At the same time, we launched a parallel effort to increase access to vital information in poor countries. This effort, known as Inform and Empower, aims to help improve the quality of public services by organizing critical information and making it accessible to all (sound familiar?).

We still strongly believe that growing small businesses will help the poor, but one of Google's ten organizing principles is, "it's best to do one thing really, really well." As we evaluated our efforts this past year, it became clear that given Google.org's unique strengths - including the ability to tap Google engineers to build and link better pathways to information - we could have a greater impact on the lives of the poor by focusing our efforts on Inform and Empower. As a result, we're putting our SME initiative on the back burner. We'll continue to support the grants and investments that we've already committed under the initiative. We have observed and learned from many others addressing the challenges of financing SMEs -- many of whom are seeing significant strong results -- and we hope they continue with great success. At this time, however, we will not fund new efforts in the SME space.

Google remains committed to its philanthropic goal: using information and technology to take on some of the world's greatest challenges. We continue to draw upon resources of 1% equity, 1% profit, and employee time, as outlined by Larry Page and Sergey Brin in their 2004 letter to investors. We've had a strong year of giving since the launch of our initiatives. We know that the global financial crisis is disproportionately affecting the poor and plan to increase our overall giving in 2009.

Posted by Sonal Shah, Head of Global Development, Google.org

Power to the People or Power from the People?

Katy Bacon — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 19:53:00 +0000

In early 2008, Google.org announced its initiatives to the world and made clear how the company would leverage its people, money, and creativity to address some of the world’s most pressing and difficult problems. Among them were climate change/renewable energy, global poverty, and emerging threats.

In Africa, one of our initiatives is focused on leveraging the power of information (or the right to know) to increase transparency, accountability, and ultimately the delivery and quality of public services. "You can’t change what you can’t see" is one of our mantras, and our job is to shine light in dark places and help people decipher the black box of public service delivery. What is working? What is not? What options are available to people to plug holes in a leaky pipeline of service delivery?

Much of the initiative is about unlocking quasi-public information. One of my colleagues calls it DBHD (database hugging disorder). Why is so much “public” information not accessible (ie government budgets, service level indicators, population data) and sitting on servers in London, New York, and Geneva but not accessible to citizens, media, and even planners in Africa countries? This clearly needs to change.

What is less intuitive, however, is that there is so much information, knowledge, and wisdom within Africa that is not making its way to politicians, planners, and policy makers who make decisions about Africa. We often hear that teachers, nurses, and civil servants do not show-up for work across the continent and this is a primary contributor to the poor quality of public services. Do we bother asking why absenteeism is such a problem? Ask teachers, nurses, or administrators and they will tell you. For example, since Universal Primary Education (UPE) was adopted in many African countries more than a decade ago, classroom sizes have doubled if not tripled while teacher salaries, instructional materials, and training have hardly changed at all. Government dispensaries are rarely stocked with medications that people come to purchase so why bother staffing clinics?

Last month in rural Uganda, I saw an example of how information gathered from students is helping a local NGO address pupil absenteeism in a very targeted way. The primary school has created a student-led club that investigates why students are missing school and why they drop-out. After all, fellow students face similar challenges and know much about their peers. It turns out that most students dropping out are girls; early pregnancy and lack of finances to purchase school uniforms are leading causes of student absenteeism.

With this information in hand, the Kabarole Research Centre is working with student leaders to plant a community garden to raise money to buy uniforms for needy students, and both are working with community leaders and parents’ committees to raise the sensitive issue of early pregnancy amongst primary school students. Several young girls have returned to school after giving birth, and school administrators are more aware of what needs to happen to reduce student attrition.

And so it’s not just about delivering information to people so they can make better decisions. It’s also about listening to people to make sure donors, planners, and government officials make better decisions. Using student leaders to understand better why their peers are missing school may seem obvious, but such approaches are pretty rare in top-down systems. Better information is certainly not a panacea but it’s a necessary condition to make better decisions based on evidence rather than anecdote.

Check out my photos from the visit.

Posted by Aleem Walji, Head of Global Development Initiatives, Google.org

Prizes for panchayats

Katy Bacon — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 07:48:00 +0000

Panchayats were Mahatma Gandhi’s original vision for a free India – an India made up of thousands of “little Republics” where people meet their needs through self-reliance. Today, panchayats are responsible for implementing development programs. They often create positive change at the grassroots level, but their success stories aren’t as well known as they should be. For example in Kerala, a panchayat that was committed to education made sure the entire village was completely literate. And in the Thar district of Rajasthan, a panchayat converted the area into a tourist destination, increasing the incomes of inhabitants.

Today we're launching the Google.org Gram Panchayat Puraskar (GGPP) to celebrate innovative panchayats and encourage more innovation in local governance throughout the country. We'll reward the top five panchayats in two states, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, with a cash prize of Rs.5 lakhs (approximately $10,000 USD) which they can use to do more good in their communities.

The prize will be awarded in one of six areas: education, health and nutrition, water supply, rural infrastructure, rural electrification, and resource mobilization. The winningpayanchat must include a wide variety of social and income groups, share information with villagers, respond to citizen feedback, and track the quality of programs.

We hope the contest helps gram panchayats celebrate successes, share ideas with one another, and improve the quality of public services in villages. Help us show these innovations to the world. The contest is open for applications through January 25, 2009. To enter, visit the contest website www.google.org/ggpp.html or pick-up an application at your district or blockpanchayat office in Karnataka or Andhra Pradesh.

And, check out what Mr. Mani Shankar Aiyar, the Union Minister of Panchayat Raj had to say about the competition:

Posted by Salimah Samji, Program Manager, Inform & Empower and Meryl Stone, Senior Associate, Inform & Empower

Rethinking sanitation services

Katy Bacon — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 23:29:00 +0000

A guest post from Pay Drechsel at the International Water Management Institute (IWMI):

As in many parts of the developing world, failure is the norm for urban sanitation services in Ghana. Of the approximately 60 wastewater and faecal sludge treatment plants that exist in the country, less than half have any functional capacity, and fewer than five are operating as designed. The absence of adequate sewage collection and treatment imparts an enormous public and environmental health burden in particular in Ghana’s urban areas where the risk of epidemics is highest given the large number of people in a confined area.

One of the pathways with highest risk of disease transmission is the widespread consumption of raw vegetables irrigated with surface water which is heavily polluted with excreta related pathogens. Over 200,000 people eat such dishes every day in the Accra fast food sector. While most local consumers might have a higher resistance to the diarrhea causing-rotavirus than Ghana’s average tourists, there is no resistance when it comes to cholera, as the current outbreak in Zimbabwe shows.

Most sanitation models are imported from the developed world and seldom fit the conditions and capacities in low-income countries – which explains the catastrophic statistics given above - and jeopardizes their purpose of safeguarding public health. Until this situation changes, it may make sense to challenge the traditional approach and outsource some sanitation-related public services from the financially constrained public sector to those who benefit from the waste stream, like farmers and vegetable sellers. The IWMI works with the World Health Organization and many local partners on various practical options to reduce the health risks on farms and in the street food sector where most dishes with raw vegetables are sold. Some of these findings are summarized in videos we’ve posted on YouTube.

With the support of Google.org and Canada's International Development Research Council, an international expert group brainstormed under the leadership of IWMI the about research needs to address the health risks in such situations where public sanitation services are constrained. The meeting concluded with the Accra Consensus and a renewed commitment to "rethink" sanitation. We hope you will share your thoughts on this challenge with us after viewing the videos and reading the Accra Consensus document.

Posted by Pay Drechsel, Theme Leader, Water, Health, and the Environment, IWMI West Africa Team

Working towards "One Africa, One Health"

Katy Bacon — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 18:09:00 +0000

Our Predict and Prevent initiative is delighted to announce support to a new regional disease surveillance network called the Southern African Centre for Infectious Disease Surveillance (SACIDS). SACIDS is the first regional network to embrace the concept of 'One Health' right from the start by linking 25 human and animal health institutions in Tanzania, Zambia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique and South Africa. Over time, it hopes to include other countries from the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

The SACIDS concept sprang from a Foresight study called 'Infectious Diseases: Preparing for the Future’ involving more than 400 scientists. SACIDS was developed through meetings with key stakeholders over a period of three years. Its mission is to harness innovation in science and technology in order to improve Southern Africa's capacity to detect, identify and monitor infectious diseases of humans, animals and plants. By sharing data, experience, training, and tools, the countries participating in SACIDS can raise the quality of disease surveillance for the entire region.

With rising international travel and trade, outbreaks can go global within hours. Once diseases are detected, responding quickly and across borders saves lives. "Too often, countries work in isolation, ignoring their neighbors, while diseases cross borders daily. We are thrilled that this effort will increase local cooperation and capacity," said Professor Mark Rweyemamu, the Executive Director of SACIDS. SACIDS will be physically headquartered at the Sokoine University of Agriculture, in Morogoro, Tanzania.

Google.org will support the establishment of the SACIDS network through an initial $500,000 grant to the Nuclear Threat Initiative's Global Health and Security Initiative (GHSI). GHSI's Director for Health Security and Epidemiology Dr. Louise Gresham said, "We look forward to applying our expertise in developing regional surveillance networks, a keystone in building capacity to combat emerging, neglected and endemic disease in Southern Africa.” GHSI will share extensive experience working with regional networks in the Middle East (the Middle East Consortium on Infectious Disease Surveillance) and Southeast Asia (the Mekong Basin Disease Surveillance network). In a second phase of the project, Google.org will make an additional contribution of $1,500,000 to African stakeholders working with SACIDS.

To learn more about SACIDS and our other partners in Predict and Prevent, download this updated Google Earth layer which highlights the details of their work.

Posted by Joanne Stevens, Associate, Predict and Prevent

Why local content matters

Katy Bacon — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 16:59:00 +0000

(Cross-posted from the Official Google Africa Blog)

Having been in Africa for the past several months, I am beginning to see firsthand how access to information by regular citizens is starting to transform the continent. A single newspaper could be read by as many as 10 people, citizens are willing to rent-a-paper, and FM radio stations are exploding in communities where people are hungry for news, entertainment, and opportunities to make their voices heard.

It’s the last point that has really struck me. With mobile phone penetration growing everyday and airtime prices falling, people are communicating more than ever before, sending text messages and calling in to radio talk shows. They are expressing their views, sharing their opinions with each other, and communicating their delight or displeasure with government, business, and civil actors in more informed ways.

In East Africa in particular, people are bracing themselves for the broadband revolution. Within 12 months, initiatives like Seacom and EasyCom are likely to be active in the region and will connect people in completely new ways. What will happen when the super-highways open their gates? Will traffic flow in one direction or two? Will East Africans become net consumers or producers of information?

Last week, Kenya held its first “content” conference arranged by the national ICT Board. Public and private people had plenty to say about “local content” and why it mattered. What started as a technical discussion about connectivity quickly turned to issues of national pride, language, and fear that a globalized world could homogenize indigenous cultures. While Kenyans clearly yearn to be part of the global community and consume information far beyond their borders, they also want to be heard, recognized, and contribute to global conversations. They want their news, their music, their issues, and their voices to find a place in the online universe.

Today, Swahili books online for example, number in the hundreds compared to the hundreds of millions of books in English available online. What message does this send to young people about the relative importance of their knowledge, language, and culture? Fortunately, Google translation tools are beginning to address this challenge and launching search in Swahili is creating the right incentives to put more content online. But what else will it take to create symmetry between the number of people who speak a given language and content available to them?

The good news is that there is no paucity of African content in the offline world. Africa is home to some of the world’s richest musical traditions, oral histories, and physical heritage. The second piece of good news is that mobile phones are likely to be gateways to the internet in much of the continent. The challenge is how to migrate this wealth of content from the offline to the online world. If Africans are going to get online en masse, they need a reason to go there and they need to see themselves, their values, and their stories when looking through the online prism. With the availability of Google MapMaker in Africa, we’re already seeing that people are creating their own content and populating base maps with layers that are meaningful and useful to them. That is exciting. Whether its stories, pictures, or data on budgets and literacy rates, I hope we can give people a stake and a reason to get online and participate in the information society.

Posted by Aleem Walji, Head of Global Development Initiatives, Google.org

A Deadly New Arenavirus

Katy Bacon — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 19:07:00 +0000

On September 12 2008, Cecilia van Deventer, a safari booking agent living in Zambia, was flown to South Africa in critical condition. She died just two days later. By October 6 2008, three more people had died: the paramedic who accompanied Cecilia to South Africa, the nurse who cared for her in Intensive Care, and the cleaner who cleaned her hospital room after her death. A fifth patient, a nurse who cared for the infected paramedic, is receiving anti-viral treatment. In all cases, people infected were exposed to infected blood and/or body fluids.

South Africa's National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (US-CDC) quickly identified the infectious agent as an arenavirus similar to the one that causes Lassa Fever - a disease that affects 500 000 people per year in West Africa. Now, following full sequencing of the viral genome by Professor Ian Lipkin and colleagues at the Center for Infection and Immunity (CII) at Columbia University, it has been clearly shown that this is an arenavirus that has never been seen before. Google.org's Predict and Prevent initiative recently announced a grant of $2.5 million to support CII's work in pathogen discovery. This identification of a novel arenavirus not only represents an early success, but also demonstrates just why this work is so important. 'There is no doubt we are dealing with a newly emerged virus,' said Dr. Janusz Paweska, head of the special pathology unit at the NICD in Johannesburg. As Professor Robert Swanepoel, also of the NICD, has pointed out, the virus is 'newly-discovered' rather than new, and has probably been around in animal populations for some time before making a recent jump to humans.

Arenaviruses, normally transferred to humans through contact with the urine of their rodent hosts, can be classified into New and Old World viruses depending on whether they originate in the Western or Eastern hemisphere respectively. New World arenaviruses, including Junin, Machupo, Sabia and Guanarito, can cause viral hemorrhagic fever. This particular virus, classified as Old World due to its African origins, began as a flu-like illness, then caused diarrhea, pharyngitis and a rash before rapidly culminating in respiratory distress, neurological symptoms and circulatory collapse over a period of about 9-12 days. The virus has yet to receive a name.

Due to the swift action of the NICD, US-CDC and CII the outbreak is now described as contained. We commend their efforts!

Posted by Joanne Stevens, Associate, Predict & Prevent

BarCamp Africa in Silicon Valley

Katy Bacon — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 01:18:00 +0000

On October 11th, nearly 200 people convened at Google for the first BarCamp Africa with the purpose of "building the conversation between people and opportunities in Silicon Valley and Africa." With Google as Hosting Sponsor, this volunteer-run event gathered a wide array of technologists, philanthropists, bloggers, artists and entrepreneurs, more than 20 not-for-profit organizations, and subject matter experts from across the Bay Area and as far as Rwanda, Kenya, South Africa and Uganda.

First conceived by Ellen Petry Leanse and Kaushal Jhalla, two Bay Area residents with deep roots in Africa, BarCamp Africa provided the unique opportunity to bring together Africa-focused professionals from Silicon Valley with people from, and doing important work in, Africa. With an emphasis on user-generated content and spontaneous connections, BarCamp Africa let participants to shape the agenda, and provided the space for creativity and idea sharing. As with other BarCamp events held in Nairobi and Kampala earlier this year, Google has helped connect the African technology community with other vital sectors to explore how, collectively, our efforts could make a difference in the region, through technology and innovation.

Topics discussed during the day’s event included emerging technologies, mobile phone growth and opportunities, social innovation and entrepreneurship. Highlights included:

The need to focus on supporting entrepreneurship and business growth
The importance of investing in local talent
The opportunity to promote innovation as the key driver of industry growth and job creation
The importance of helping strengthen connection to community for disadvantaged students with strong potential so that they do not lose roots (diaspora challenge)
How giving back to the community provides girls who have received assistance (scholarship support, mentoring, etc.) with self-esteem, and the feeling that they can accomplish great things because of the experience of doing so
The role of economic development that drives choice and support for women's empowerment

A number of new initiatives emerged as a direct result of BarCamp Africa, including:

the founding of Reaspora.com, a web destination focused on resources, connections and support for African expatriates interested in re-connecting with the continent. The name for this website and the commitment to build it grew directly from connections made at BarCamp Africa
the creation of SquibWib, a web-based educational platform that allows a mentor and a student in different places to meet online and read together, as if they were in the same room
the establishment of Afridex , the first steps of a consolidator of pan-African tech content
the launch of Kelele, an annual bloggers' conference that will move between African countries; the wide response to BarCamp Africa inspired a coalition of African bloggers to commit to this ongoing gathering
the building of connections between Silicon Valley's community of not-for-profits focused on positive change in Africa; these groups have already begun to support one another at local gatherings and events.

With the help of sponsorship from Google.org, five attendees from outside of the United States were able to join the group to represent the NGO sector, whose efforts ranged from education to conservation and web development. A number of sponsors and individual participants contributed generously, including Humanity United.

Find out more by checking out BarCampAfrica's blog, twemes feed, wiki, photostream, reading about it on our Google Africa blog or by watching videos from the event on our Google.org YouTube Channel.

Posted by Rachel Payne, Program Manager, Google.org

An award for ASER

Katy Bacon — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 23:55:00 +0000

The core of the Inform and Empower initiative lies in the access to timely, relevant information that can empower government leaders and citizens to improve the delivery of vital public services. So I was delighted to hear that yesterday one of our grantees, Pratham-ASER, was a gold winner of the 2008 Excellence in Information Integrity award in the non-profit category.

The EII Awards Program recognizes organizations that have made significant progress - through a single project or an enterprise-wide effort - towards achieving Information Integrity - the accuracy, consistency and reliability of the information content, process and system. Given that ASER is one of the few organizations collecting data on basic literacy and numeracy across rural India, it is extremely important that their data is accurate. How exciting to see our grantee get international recognition for their efforts!

Posted by Salimah Samji, Program Manager, Inform & Empower

The World is a Mess…Agree or Disagree?

Katy Bacon — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 23:48:00 +0000

A number of us at Google.org have been gleefully contributing to the spread of the Girl Effect video. Maybe you have seen this powerful and moving video already. This piece of art and social commerce, which argues that the key to breaking the cycle of poverty is the education and empowerment of girls, has gone viral and has been featured on a number of interesting blogs (including blogher and Made to Stick).

We really admire a couple of things about this video-- how it has been used to define a complex issue in accessible terms, kick start an important conversation, and complement the announcement by the Nike Foundation and NoVo Foundation of their giving strategy, which focuses on improving the lives of girls in poor countries. We are also interested in understanding what comes next.

What has seeing this video prompted you to do? Where will the conversation go from here?

Posted by Alix Zwane, Program Manager, Inform & Empower

More than $14M for genetic and digital detection

Katy Bacon — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 06:40:00 +0000

In January we announced Predict and Prevent, Google.org's global public health initiative that aims to help prevent the next pandemic. Since then our team has traveled far and wide to meet with partners, particularly in Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. We convened a workshop with the world's experts on emerging infectious diseases in March, sponsored a meeting of climate and health experts in Nairobi in September, and attended workshops and conferences.

We're excited today about an initial $14.8 million in funding for partners working on genetic and digital detection. To learn more about our partners, see our announcement or download this Google Earth layer which highlights the details of their work. For example, check out Healthmap and ProMED-mail's expanded disease-tracking tools in Thailand:

Or the Global Viral Forecasting Initiative's work in Cameroon to track diseases like avian flu:

Predict and Prevent has adopted a "one health" approach integrating human, animal and environmental health. We focus on knowing where to look for outbreaks of emerging infectious diseases, detecting those outbreaks through digital and genetic approaches, and supporting early warning and quick response. Our partners' activities range from the use of environmental information to help health experts improve disease surveillance, to monitoring viral chatter and enhancing pathogen discovery, to strengthening networks for online disease outbreak reporting. These grants will increase our understanding of emerging infectious diseases and generate vasts amount of data, samples, sequences, and hopefully discoveries.

Our next step in putting this new knowledge to work to save lives will be to invest in robust, affordable infectious disease diagnostics for use in Asia and Africa. We're working to find ways Google's data management, data sharing, and collaboration platforms can improve information access and sharing, support online bioinformatics, and develop genetic maps of infectious diseases. Finally, we're looking to work with partners on front lines of disease emergence in hot spot countries. In short, we are very excited about the grants we announced today, but we know we have our work cut out for us - watch this space!

Posted by Frank Rijsberman, Program Director, Predict & Prevent

Google.org at Clinton Global Initiative

Katy Bacon — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 20:35:00 +0000

Last month, Google.org invited the non-profits attending Clinton Global Initiative to a half-day technology training on tools to improve their operations and enhance their websites. Romanus Berg from Ashoka moderated the session and Suzanne DiBianca and others from Salesforce talked about how non-profits can take advantage of the powerful integration between Salesforce and Google Apps. After a high-level plenary session, the 75 organizations in attendance participated in breakout sessions focused on technology solutions for improving internal efficiency, optimizing websites and harnessing the power of online video.

We also took advantage of the occasion to announce a refresh of our Google for Non-Profits site, now more streamlined and with a greater focus on training videos. Where appropriate, the groups in attendance were also given the opportunity to work with Google over the next several months to implement the ideas and strategies that work best for them.

For video from parts of the event, check out our Google for Non-Profits channel on YouTube.

Posted by John Lyman, Google.org & Galen Panger, Google for Non-Profits

Information Poverty

Katy Bacon — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 20:45:00 +0000

Today is Blog Action Day, an annual event that rallies blogs around the world to post about a common cause. This year's issue up for discussion is poverty, so we wanted to take a look at the relationship between access to information and social and economic development. The right information at the right time in the hands of people has enormous power. As someone who works for Google, I see evidence of this everyday as people search and find information they need to create knowledge, grow their business, or access essential services. But that applies primarily to the rich world, where economies are built on knowledge and presume access to information. What about the poor and developing countries where people are offline more than online? How do they benefit from the power of information?

In much of Sub-Saharan Africa, for example, rates of economic growth over the last decade have exceeded 5% every year. Despite this trend, poverty in many countries has remained constant. In Kenya, for example, the official poverty rate was 48% in 1981. According to the Kenya Poverty and Inequality Assessment released by the World Bank this year, 17 million Kenyans or 47% of the population were unable to meet the costs of food sufficient to fulfill basic daily caloric requirements. The vast majority of these people live in rural areas and have even less access to the information that impacts their daily life. Data on water quality, education and health budgets, and agricultural prices are nearly impossible to access.

Despite hundreds of millions of dollars spent each year on providing basic public services like primary education, health, water, and sanitation to poor communities, poverty in much of Sub-Saharan Africa persists. Where does this money go, who gets it, and what are the results of the resources invested? That’s where we find a big black hole of information and a lack of basic accountability. How do inputs (dollars spent) turn into outputs (schools, clinics, and wells), and, more importantly, how do outputs translate into results (literate and healthy children, clean water, etc.)?

We simply don’t know the answers to most of these basic questions. But what if we could? What if a mother could find out how much money was budgeted for her daughter's school each year and how much of it was received? What if she and other parents could report how often teachers are absent from school or whether health clinics have the medicines they are supposed to carry? What if citizens could access and report on basic information to determine value for money as tax payers?

The work of SODNET in Kenya is illustrative. They are developing a simple budget-tracking tool that allows citizens to track the allocation, use, and ultimate result of government funds earmarked for infrastructure projects in their districts. The tool is intended to create transparency in the use of tax revenues and answer the simple question: Are resources reaching their intended beneficiaries? Using tools like maps, they are able to overlay information that begins to tell a compelling story.

Google.org’s role, through our partners in East Africa and India, is to support, catalyze, and widely disseminate this kind of information to public, private, and civil society stakeholders that can use it to see more clearly what’s working, what’s broken and what are potential solutions. Leveraging platforms like Google Earth and Google Maps can help organizations disseminate their content widely and let people see and understand what was once invisible. Once information is visible, widely known, and easy to understand, we are betting that governments and citizens will pay more attention to leakages in the service delivery pipeline and feel empowered to propose solutions.

You can’t change what you can’t see. The power to know plus the power to act on what you know is the surest way to achieve positive social change from the bottom up. And when we consider the magnitude of resources invested in delivering public services each year, a 10% improvement globally would exceed the value of all foreign aid. We believe that is a bet worth making.

Posted by Aleem Walji, Head of Global Development Initiatives, Google.org

Managing the Deadly Dozen: transforming public health to "One Health"

Katy Bacon — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 18:58:00 +0000

This week the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) released a report, The Deadly Dozen: Wildlife Diseases in the Age of Climate Change, which lists 12 pathogens (including Avian Influenza, Cholera, Ebola, Lyme Disease, and Yellow fever) that are expected to spread as a result of continued climate change. WCS highlights that the spread of this deadly dozen will likely have impacts on human and wildlife health with cascading effects on the global economy. But, the report does not leave us in the dead zone. It points to how monitoring wildlife and the ecosystems in which they live can help us to manage these emergent human health threats.

This report, which draws from a new book, is just one of a series of new interdisciplinary studies (others can be found here, here, and here) that call for more proactive and holistic (“One Health”) approaches to management of emerging infectious diseases. "One Health" integrates human, animal and ecosystem health.

We are beginning to see public health training and disease management programs integrate animal health (often with a focus on livestock) into their plans. However, much less action has been taken to integrate ecosystem factors into disease management. This is not surprising given that integrating animal health into the human public health systems, although a large step institutionally, is a relatively small step conceptually. Many of the same tools and methods are common to both animal health and human health disciplines such as surveillance, vaccination, and laboratory diagnostics.

In contrasts, linking ecosystem health –including wildlife and wildlands-- and the risks of regional and global environmental change with the public health system requires a large conceptual leap. Traditionally, “environmental health” focuses on managing the health implications of pollution, toxics and occupational health. However, the environmental changes we are experiencing today, such as climate change, deforestation and biodiversity loss are fundamentally different types of problems. They entail disruptive systemic changes in underlying function of the systems. Managing the health implications of these systematic changes such as WCS’s Deadly Dozen will require the conceptual leap of transforming our public health infrastructure to a one health infrastructure.

Posted by Amy Luers, Environment Program Manager, Predict and Prevent, Google.org

Data, in depth

Katy Bacon — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 00:22:00 +0000

When I arrived in Dar es Salaam, I was greeted with a warm smile and a "Karibu sana" -- “You are welcomed” in Swahili -- that set the tone for my visit to Tanzania.

I attended the Annual General & Scientific Meeting of the INDEPTH Network. INDEPTH is an international collaborative space that includes field surveillance sites collecting data on nearly every aspect of the lives of a surveyed population -- on infectious disease, cause of deaths, migration, health service utilization, livelihood, reproductive health, and more -- across 37 sites in 19 countries in Africa, Asia, Central America and Oceania. For one of the surveillance site in Matlab, a rural area about 70 kilometres southeast of Dhaka the capital of Bangladesh, data collection has been taking place for over 40 years now. Data has been used to evaluate disease patterns and trends and also to test health interventions. In total, 2.2 million people every year are being monitored -- this provides required health and demographic data that enable developing countries to set evidence-based health priorities and policies.

Not surprisingly, data sharing within and across field sites and countries presents significant challenges to data management due to uncertainty in data access, poor metadata, and disparate data quality standards. Some of these issues and challenges were discussed during a session on technological innovations. Of particular interest was the use of open source software for geospatial data management and analysis within and across sites in Burkina Faso, India, Papua New Guinea, Tanzania, and Thailand. We also learned about projects in Uganda and Bangladesh piloting the use of mobile survey software for data collection – one of the sites was collecting 29,000 forms a year. Another point that piqued my interest was the concept of a “Health System Observatory” operating at different levels that would foster research discovery, innovation, and interactions between researchers, policy-makers, and other communities.

A concrete next step for me is to explore the possibility of leveraging INDEPTH capabilities to investigate the impact of ecology, climate, and socioeconomic change on the transmission of infectious diseases for more targeted control activities at local level.

Posted by France Lamy, Program Manager, Predict and Prevent, Google.org

Eric Schmidt discusses Clean Energy 2030

Katy Bacon — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 01:24:00 +0000

Watch Google's Chairman and CEO discuss our recent proposal for reducing U.S. dependence on fossil fuels:

You can read the full plan here.

Posted by Katy Bacon, Google.org Team

Clean Energy 2030

Katy Bacon — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 17:33:00 +0000

(Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog)

Right now the U.S. has a very real opportunity to transform our economy from one running on fossil fuels to one largely based on clean energy. We are developing the technologies and know-how to accomplish this. We can build whole new industries and create millions of new jobs. We can reduce energy costs, both at the gas pump and at home. We can improve our national security. And we can put a big dent in climate change. With strong leadership we could be moving forward on an aggressive but realistic timeline and an approach that balances costs with real economic gains.

The energy team at Google has been crunching the numbers to see how we could greatly reduce fossil fuel use by 2030. Our analysis, led by Jeffery Greenblatt, suggests a potential path to weaning the U.S. off of coal and oil for electricity generation by 2030 (with some remaining use of natural gas as well as nuclear), and cutting oil use for cars by 40%. Al Gore has issued a challenge that is even more ambitious, getting us to carbon-free electricity even sooner. We hope the American public pushes our leaders to embrace it. T. Boone Pickens has weighed in with an interesting plan of his own to massively deploy wind energy, among other things. Other plans have also been developed in recent years that merit attention.

Our goal in presenting this first iteration of the Clean Energy 2030 proposal is to stimulate debate and we invite you to take a look and comment - or offer an alternative approach if you disagree. With a new Administration and Congress - and multiple energy-related imperatives - this is an opportune, perhaps unprecedented, moment to move from plan to action.

Over 22 years this plan could generate billions of dollars in savings and help create millions of green jobs. Many of these high quality, good-paying jobs will be in today's coal and oil producing states.

To get there we need immediate action on three fronts:

(1) Reduce demand by doing more with less

We should start with the low-hanging fruit by reducing energy demand through energy efficiency -- adopting technologies and practices that allow us to do more with less. At Google, we've seen the benefits of this approach. We identified $5M in building efficiency investments with a 2.5 year payback. We've also designed our own data centers to run more efficiently, and we believe they are the most efficient in the world. On a smaller scale, personal computers can also become much more efficient. A typical desktop PC wastes nearly half the power it consumes. Last year, Bill Weihl, our Green Energy Czar, worked with industry partners to create the Climate Savers Computing Initiative to raise energy efficiency standards for personal computers and servers. If we meet our goals, these standards will cut energy consumption by the equivalent of 10-20 coal-fired power plants by 2010.

Government can have a big impact on achieving greater efficiency. California's aggressive building codes, efficiency standards and utility programs have helped the state keep per-capita energy use flat for years, while consumption in much of the rest of the country has grown significantly. Enacting similar policies at the national level would help even more.

We also need to give the American people opportunities to be more efficient. The way we buy electricity today is like going to a store without seeing prices: we pick what we want, and receive an unintelligible bill at the end of the month. When homes are equipped with smart meters and real-time pricing, research shows that energy use typically drops. Google is looking at ways that we can use our information technology and our reach to help increase awareness and bring better, real-time information to consumers.

(2) Develop renewable energy that is cheaper than coal (RE

Google’s data centers draw from a U.S. electricity grid that relies on coal for 50% of its power. We want to help catalyze the development of renewable energy that is price competitive with coal. At least three technologies show tremendous promise: wind, solar thermal, and advanced geothermal. Each of these is abundant and, when combined, could supply energy in virtually every region of the U.S.

This year Google has invested over $45 million in startup companies with breakthrough wind, solar and geothermal technologies through our Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal (RE) initiative, but that is a drop when we need a flood. We need to unleash massive private investment in clean energy. The government can have a big impact here as well. We must dramatically increase federal R&D and enact measures supporting the rapid deployment and scaling of clean technologies such as long-term tax support and a national renewable energy standard. Tax credits for wind and solar have lapsed several times in the last 20 years, starving these nascent industries of the capital they need to truly enter the mainstream.

We also must work both sides of the RE equation. Progress will be accelerated when the price of carbon reflects its true costs to society. Putting a price on carbon through cap-and-trade or a carbon tax would help address this.

(3) Electrify transportation and re-invent our electric grid

Imagine driving a car that uses no gas and is less expensive to recharge than buying a latte. A "smart grid" allows you to charge when electricity is cheap, and maybe even make some money by selling unused power back to the grid when it's needed. Plug-in cars are on their way, with GM, Toyota and other manufacturers planning introductions in the next two years. At Google we have a small fleet of Toyota Prius and Ford Escape plug-in conversions, as a part of our RechargeIT program. The converted Prius plug-ins get over 90 MPG, and the Escapes close to 50 MPG. However to successfully put millions of plug-in cars on the road and and fuel them with green electricity, we need a smart grid that manages when we charge and how we're billed. A smart grid could also provide for the two-way flow of electricity, as well as large-scale integration of intermittent solar and wind energy. Much of the technology in our current electrical grid was developed in the 60s and is wasteful and not very smart. We are partnering with GE to help accelerate the development of the smart grid and support building new transmission lines to harness our nation's vast renewable energy resources.

We see a huge opportunity for the nation to confront our energy challenges. In the process we will stimulate investment, create jobs, empower consumers and, by the way, help address climate change.

Posted by Dan Reicher, Director, Climate Change and Energy Initiatives, and Jeffery Greenblatt, Climate and Energy Technology Manager, Google.org

Black Googler Network visits New Orleans

Katy Bacon — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 00:37:00 +0000

On August 29, 2005, millions of Americans watched in horror as the wind, rain and flood waters wiped away the homes, businesses and livelihood of citizens along the Gulf Coast of the US. In the days that followed, a record number of volunteers flooded disaster response agencies, government agencies, churches and local outreach organizations with calls to find out how they could help. I was one of those volunteers and what I experienced changed my life forever.

Three years later, much of the region remains abandoned. Repair of city infrastructure and tourism (the primary economic source for this part of the nation) are slow and stagnant in much of the region. We will be successful in turning around these trends only if we come together and rededicate ourselves to this effort. As part of the Black Googlers Network (BGN), 32 colleagues and I traveled to the region for what was initially slated as a Katrina Rebuilding Outreach Trip. As New Orleans slowly comes back to life, we will be standing side by side with the proud and resilient residents of this amazing city to help them repair the lives they've worked so hard to rebuild, sending a clear message that they are not forgotten.

As our group planned to deploy so quickly after Hurricane Gustav, most agencies were still shut down because their employees were evacuated to other parts of the country. Notable exceptions to this shut down were two organizations to which I have personal ties - St. Bernard Project and The Idea Village.

St. Bernard Project is a nonprofit, community-based organization that began rebuilding homes in August 2006 (boasting 177 projects to date) that were damaged by flood waters from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana. St. Bernard Parish is a working class community and was one of the hardest hit parishes of the city because of its location just 5 miles from the now infamous Industrial Levee.

The Idea Village is an organization working to accelerate the growth of the entrepreneurial community in the embattled New Orleans region. During our visit, BGN assisted with the development of the launch plan for their 504ward $200,000 business plan competition by employing our business savvy, creative thought processes and Google product knowledge. Launched on September 25th, this competition hopes to keep the thousands of young people who have flocked to New Orleans since Katrina engaged by soliciting ideas on how to develop a strong foundation of entrepreneurial ventures. The Idea Village's motto is "Trust Your Crazy Ideas," but I don't see anything crazy about wanting to rebuild one of America's greatest cities.

The highlight of the trip was that at each build site, the families whose homes we were returning to their former grace stopped by to say hello, offer their gratitude and recount the stories of survival. Andrea was the owner of the home I was rebuilding. She was the mother of two small children and was anxious to return a sense of normalcy to all of their lives. Andrea told us of the time her adventurous son wandered into the deep grass behind her home only to come face to face with one of the region's indigenous deadly snakes. He curiously inspected the snake, only to be whisked up by his attentive mother just as the serpent was preparing to strike. This snake's venom could kill a full grown man in 20 minutes. The closest emergency room, as a result the devastation, is over 45 minutes away. Even with all of the progress made to get people back into their homes, communities are fractured and without basic services and business opportunities.

On the final day of our trip, we went to the Upper and Lower Ninth Ward, the areas most devastated by the hurricanes. The neighborhoods were absent of life; there is little or nothing for residents to come back to. But signs of hope included children riding bikes, families and neighbors barbecuing on the front lawns of their homes (many still tattooed with the post storm FEMA markings) and a few bold projects such as the The Musicians' Village and Brad Pitt's Make it Right project. These things remind me not to view New Orleans with sadness or pity, but with respect, dignity and a pledge to offer a hand in their greatest time of need. In our case, 64 hands.

Posted by Tara Canobbio, Google.org Team

Debating – and agreeing – on energy policy

Katy Bacon — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 18:36:00 +0000

Disagreements may make headlines in the energy policy debate, but you know we're getting somewhere when an oil company executive, a foreign policy expert, and Dan Reicher, Google.org's Director of Climate Change and Energy Initiatives, agree on the most effective way of lowering today's high energy costs: improving energy efficiency.

This past Friday, Dan Reicher participated with these and other experts in an energy summit convened by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee ahead of possible votes on legislative proposals pending in Congress. Energy has taken center stage in D.C. during this short session before the October recess, and more than two dozen senators participated in the summit's morning session alone.

Dan and other member of the panel stressed the importance of improving energy efficiency as the low-hanging fruit in the energy policy debate. He pointed to the role of IT in making homes, businesses, and appliances more efficient, and he called on Senators to consider setting more aggressive national efficiency standards like those in place today in California.

Dan also emphasized the need to extend renewable energy tax credits. During this discussion, senators expressed particular interest in the promise of enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) technology which Google has championed in recent months. Many participants also emphasized the need to make tax incentives more consistent and reliable to avoid sending "stop-and-go" signals to businesses and investors.

Check out the video archive of this summit to learn more.

Posted by Harry Wingo, Policy Counsel, Google

Want a job working for the Base of the Pyramid?

Katy Bacon — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 18:36:00 +0000

A guest post from our friends and partners at the Acumen Fund:

If you care about market-based approaches to poverty alleviation, then the Acumen Fund Fellowship might be a dream job. Seriously - you can spend a full year living and working at the nexus of development and enterprise! Of course, there's an application and an interview process, and Acumen Fund is looking for a specific kind of person - someone with "the moral imagination, the practical skills and the leadership potential to effect real change," as Acumen Fund's Deepti Doshi put it on the Acumen Fund blog.

If you are interested in the base of the pyramid sector and believe you have the skills and experience to contribute to this mission over the next year, please apply. If you're happy doing what you're doing, fantastic. But I'm sure you know a few people for whom the fellowship is indeed a dream. Please send them our way.

Posted by Rob Katz, Acumen Fund

Variability or Change?

Katy Bacon — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 18:36:00 +0000

For years, first scientists, then the media and politicians debated whether the observed global warming trend is due to natural variability or human-induced changes in the climate system. Fortunately, this debate has now been mostly put to rest with the release of the fourth assessment of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) last year, which stated: “Warming of the climate system is unequivocal….(and) most of the observed increase in global average temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations”

However, the variability vs. change discussion is now taking on a new life. This time the debate is not focused on attributing a cause to global warming but rather what to do about adapting to it impacts. Is improving management to current climate variability – an adaptation strategy? Or is climate adaptation more about developing strategies to manage the severe climate change impacts projected for 20-50 years in the future?

Questions such as these arose in a recent workshop that Google.org sponsored in Kenya on climate and health. "Are we talking about climate variability or climate change?" participants would ask during working groups focused on identifying strategies for reducing vulnerability to the emergence and spread of climate-sensitive diseases.

The crux of the variability vs. change discussion began when Phil Thornton from ILRI presented an overview of the state of the science on climate projections which highlighted the huge uncertainty in projections from the Global Climate Models (GCMs) out toward the middle and end of century. Then Caroline Kisia, executive director of Action Africa Help International (AAHI) and a medical doctor who works with communities in Kenya, spoke up and explained that the climate science stuff is interesting…but it is not clear what communities are supposed to do with this information – there is too much uncertainty to define any real actions here.

A few case studies were then presented showing how weather and seasonal climate projections have the potential for improving management for climate-sensitive diseases such as rift valley fever, malaria, meningitis and dengue. These seemed to be helpful, but how are they related to climate adaptation?

These are all good points and good questions. It seems that Caroline was asking the climate scientists and health experts in the room to put aside their fancy models and labels and just focus on the community needs.

Communities today across the globe, and especially in Africa, have many needs related to managing the risks of climate and weather– including floods, droughts, and climate-sensitive diseases. The workshop discussions highlighted the opportunities and challenges of connecting the climate and health sectors to build tools for managing these risks.

Ultimately, for the poorest regions of the world facing the increasing threats from climate change, adaption is in large part simply about a heightened need for communities and nations to do what they need to do anyway in pursuit of sustainable development – such as improve health services, develop drought-resistant crop options and diversify income sources.

Does this all then just come down to semantics? At the community level it may be best not to worry about labels such as variability, change or adaptation. However, the implications of these semantics may be far reaching as policymakers to develop much needed climate adaptation assistance programs and face important questions such as who should pay for climate adaptation in the poorest nations where communities are most vulnerable to but least responsible for the changes underway? And what should be paid for, that is, what constitutes climate adaptation?

These are tough questions. I am optimistic that if we don't get stuck on the semantics but keep our eyes on our goals we will find solutions to enable the most vulnerable populations to take the concrete actions needed to improve their health and livelihoods.

Rosemary Sang led a session on Rift Valley Fever (RVF) and the lessons learned from the major RVF outbreak in 2006-07 where 155 people died.

Posted by Amy Luers, Environment Program Manager, Predict and Prevent

Partnering with GE on clean energy

Katy Bacon — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 17:04:00 +0000

Yesterday, we announced that we're joining forces (PDF file) with GE to use technology, information and corporate resources to drive the changes necessary to empower consumers with better energy choices. Eric Schmidt and GE CEO Jeff Immelt discuss solutions to our energy challenge in this video:

Posted by Katy Bacon, Google.org Team

How to assess entrepreneurial potential? A new tool for SME lenders

Katy Bacon — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 17:04:00 +0000

Today, as part of our initiative to Fuel the Growth of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs), we're announcing a grant to the Entrepreneurial Finance Lab (EFL) for the development of a new screening tool for SME financing in developing countries. EFL is housed at Harvard University’s Center for International Development (CID). The Lab team is led by Asim Khwaja, an Associate Professor at the Kennedy School of Government and Bailey Klinger, a CID Fellow and EFL Director.

The Lab aims to address the “missing middle" of finance, a term that describes the shortage of capital available to SMEs in developing country economies. In developed countries, SMEs represent half of GDP and two-thirds of jobs, but they're largely absent in developing countries. Access to finance is a critical constraint, despite evidence that there are highly profitable untapped growth opportunities. It requires taking some risk. We saw this firsthand when we met Joseph Tackie in Ghana, an entrepreneur whose sales quintupled after getting a relatively small amount of seed capital.

The mission of EFL is to develop a screening test that could be a criterion for loans to SMEs. Because these businesses often lack formal accounting ledgers or established credit histories, it's very difficult for investors and lenders to gauge risk or finance-worthiness of businesses. When evaluating developing country SMEs, financial institutions have little information to be able to make investment decisions or measure the trustworthiness of clients. Does she have a good track record at repayments and money management? Is he good at numbers and bargaining? Does she understand the market and how to run a business? Evidence suggests information such as credit scores helped banks penetrate the SME market here in the US.

We hope the EFL test will address the information asymmetry and help entrepreneurs get their foot in the door at banks and investment firms. The test, a psychometric screening tool, will assess “soft traits” of psychological, social, and cognitive characteristics to measure a person's entrepreneurial potential. Financiers can then use the information to make lending decisions. The test could be an initial step toward the goal of expanding profitable lending to the missing middle.

EFL is already working with SME financiers in Africa, India and Latin America to refine their tool through field testing and pilots. The team is currently looking for institutions to partner with on these pilot tests, and offers financial institutions early access to the screening technology (interested parties should contact efl@harvard.edu). Google.org is supporting the team in their work in Africa and India in particular as part of our efforts to expand financial access to SMEs in these regions. We’re excited to see how this cutting edge effort progresses!

Posted by Swati Mylavarapu, Senior Associate, SME Initiative

Diseases don’t respect academic boundaries either…

Katy Bacon — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 18:02:00 +0000

Yesterday marked the second day of a convening in Nairobi, Kenya focused on Linking Climate and Health Research to Reduce Africa's Infectious Disease Burden. The meeting was sponsored by Google.org and was co-hosted by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe), the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) and IGAD Climate Predictions and Applications Centre (ICPAC). The convening has brought together a range of African and international experts from such diverse fields as climate science, human and animal health, genomics and bioinformatics, wildlife conservation, entomology, economics and sociology.

As a South African medical doctor with training and experience firmly fixed on human health, I am continuously struck by the enormous challenge of communicating usefully across academic disciplinary boundaries in a way that allows the science to inform relevant, practical action. While the information on climate variability and change was fascinating, I still struggled to understand how and why this could have direct implications for the day-to-day work of someone like me.

Fortunately, the convening included several case studies designed to illustrate the real benefits of collaboration. First, we looked closely at the Kenyan outbreak of Rift Valley Fever (RVF) in 2006/7. A mosquito-borne disease, Rift Valley Fever can be fatal to both humans and livestock, and carries an enormous economic cost. In late October and mid-November of 2006, two early warnings were issued based on evidence of above-normal rainfall that could be detected using remote sensing imagery. Unfortunately it was not until weeks later when the first human cases were observed that the outbreak was recognized, despite the fact that several livestock deaths had already occurred. Although the climate-based warnings and animal deaths were both early indicators of potential human disease, these opportunities for intervention were missed due to communication gaps between the different scientific communities. It's often said that diseases don't respect national boundaries, but RVF is the perfect example of a disease that doesn't respect academic boundaries either. As the Kenyan example shows, successful control of disease in humans requires collaboration with those working on environmental, animal health and insect science issues (at a minimum!).

Two other presentations described the use of climate-based early warning systems for malaria in the East African highlands and Botswana. Encouragingly, these systems have been used successfully to plan malaria interventions in health facilities right down to the district level through programs such as the Highlands Malaria Project.

What was clear in from these discussion is that information on climate variability and change might just be critical for even ordinary docs like me.

Posted by Joanne Stevens, Associate, Predict and Prevent Initiative

Enough geothermal energy to power the globe — now that’s hot!

Katy Bacon — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 14:26:00 +0000

Today, as part of our Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal initiative, Google.org announced more than $10 million in investments and grants in Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) technology. EGS expands the potential of traditional geothermal energy by orders of magnitude. The traditional geothermal approach relies on finding naturally occurring pockets of steam or hot water. The EGS process, by comparison, replicates these conditions by fracturing hot rock, circulating water through the system, and using the resulting steam to produce electricity in a conventional turbine.

EGS has the potential to provide clean renewable electricity 24/7, at a cost cheaper than coal. The ability to produce electricity from geothermal energy has been thought exclusive to locations such as California and Iceland. However EGS could allow us to harness the heat within the earth almost anywhere. To see see the massive size of the US geothermal resource accessible by EGS, check out our Google Earth layer. For more on EGS, watch this video, featuring Dr. Steve Chu, Director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and Dr. Jefferson Tester, professor of Chemical Engineering at MIT and lead author of a major recent study on EGS:

Our EGS partners to date include:

AltaRock Energy: $6.25 million investment to develop innovative technologies to achieve significant cost reductions and improved performance in EGS projects
Potter Drilling: $4 million investment in two tranches, to develop new approaches to lower the cost and expand the range of deep hard rock drilling, a critical element to large-scale deployment of EGS
Southern Methodist University Geothermal Laboratory: $489,521 grant to improve understanding of the size and distribution of geothermal energy resources and to update geothermal mapping of North America

Working with Geodynamics, one of the world's leading EGS development companies, we modeled Geodynamics' first 50 MW system at the Cooper Basin in SketchUp, Google's 3D modeling technology. To see how EGS works, check out the animation of the SketchUp model or download it.

EGS is heating up around the world. Australia, Germany, and the European Union are currently leading the technology and commercialization race. All 50 U.S. states, Europe, Russia, China, and India all have substantial thermal resources accessible by EGS.

While the US debates drilling in the ocean for oil, we are focused on drilling for renewable energy - and lots of it - right beneath our feet. A recent report by MIT on EGS estimated just 2% of the heat 3 - 10 km below below the continental United States is more than 2,500 times the country's total annual energy use. The United States needs more aggressive government policies to help catch up to other nations, including expanded R&D funding, a national renewable portfolio standard, and reliable tax incentives. For more on our geothermal policy agenda, read this brief.

EGS has enormous potential to cleanly address the world's energy challenges. We look forward to continuing our efforts to advance EGS through technology, investment, policy and information.

Posted by Charles Baron, Climate and Energy Team, Google.org

They are going to school, but are they actually learning?

Katy Bacon — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 23:26:00 +0000

HakiElimu, one of Google.org’s partners, recently released an important report about the quality of education in Tanzania to stimulate a national discussion about the challenges facing the education sector. Media coverage in Dar es Salaam indicates the report has already made an impression and is prompting the government to act.

For too long, success in the education sector has been defined by the number of schools and classrooms built and by the increase in student enrollment - measures that don't necessarily register learning. But the conversation is now shifting: "quality" has become more front and center, forcing governments and development agencies to re-evaluate their policies.

It’s hard to address the “quality” issue without knowing what children can and cannot do. Part of HakiElimu’s report captures a “snapshot of the quality of education actually provided in schools by presenting the results of short tests administered to children in primary and secondary schools.” The sample pool is small, but the findings are interesting indicators of what may be happening in much of the country. Here are two of the findings that I found most powerful and alarming:

One of the tests was a short dictation in both Kiswahili, the national language, and English (a total of 483 primary school students and 559 secondary school students were tested). While students scored higher on the Kiswahili dictations, HakiElimu found it “concerning that 25% of primary pupils’ Kiswahili dictations were rated “poor.” Pupils who took this test had completed six years’ of schooling in Kiswahili and yet one in four were unable to write a coherent paragraph as dictated in the national language. In the dictations, students in both primary and secondary schools made fundamental errors in punctuation, giving researchers the impression that these things are not taught in schools. Children were often using the improper case for letters. Similarly, many did not appear to have a sense of spacing between words, or between letters in the word and between sentences. Knowledge of punctuation was also limited” (page 29)

The next point is equally alarming: Primary school students are taught in Kiswahili while in secondary schools the language of instruction is in English. As the report indicates, this is problematic.

“Overall, data show that while children’s Kiswahili language competencies are generally well developed, English language competencies are poorly developed in both primary and secondary school students. Students had difficulty in reading, writing and translating the language. This is particularly troublesome in case of secondary school students. On entering secondary schools, children not only have to relearn all the terms and concepts in a new language but also to take on a more difficult set of subjects. If the majority of the students in secondary schools are unable to read and understand the language in which they are taught, as our data show, it is difficult to see how their learning can be enhanced. (page 33)

My colleagues and I often say “you can’t fix what you can’t see.” This report helps to highlight to communities, organizations and the government that while money might be spent on education, there are still significant gaps in learning outcomes. More information and data about these outcomes help create the metrics, so action can be taken to fix these gaps. We are proud of HakiElimu's work and their commitment to ensuring that citizens and government know more about the quality of education in Tanzania. We believe that the information and the discussions it is sparking in Tanzania are important first steps toward improving the educational system.

Posted by Juliette Gimon, Program Manager, Google.org

Technology leaps in Africa

Katy Bacon — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 16:45:00 +0000

I recently returned from a research trip across four East African countries. Every time I return from the region, I am energized by the dynamism of the young people I meet but overwhelmed by the challenges the region faces. The combination of high oil and food prices affects the United States economy, to be sure, but the impact on poor people in poor countries is exponentially greater. People have to make hard decisions like taking their children out of school, rationing the little food they have, and in some cases not eating at all. High fuel prices also contribute to lower uses of fertilizer, resulting in lower agricultural yields. The cycle spirals in a way that hurts the poorest people the most.

And yet there is another story unfolding simultaneously in Eastern Africa. It is the story of Safaricom, the most successful telecom company on the continent. Safaricom started trading publicly on the Nairobi stock exchange in June and catalyzed the largest IPO on the continent ever. More than $800 million was raised from Kenyans from all walks of life, resulting in an over-subscription of stock of more than 400%. Mobile is growing faster in Africa than in any other part of the world. While levels of internet penetration are well below 5% for the continent, nearly 40% have access to mobile phones and Nairobi sends more text messages in a single day than New York (a statistic frequently quoted in the region).

Ten years ago people were talking about land lines and how they would ever penetrate rural Africa. Infrastructure has long been a constraint on economic development and growth in Africa but nobody imagined that a new technology would completely leap-frog the traditional phone and fundamentally disrupt telephony in Africa. I can't help but think about rural energy in the same light. Today, countries like Uganda are still 90% unserved by electricity. Can you imagine not having power in 90% of any country and still trying to grow the economy? Do we expect Africans to wait for grid electricity to incrementally reach people or are there disruptive innovations that can provide off-grid renewable energy to rural Africans in scaleable ways? What would this look like given large geo-thermal and bio-diesel reserves in East Africa and can renewable energy sources provide opportunities for greener solutions in Africa?

Interacting with dynamic and bright Africans under 30 (who make up 70% or more of most African countries), I cannot help but wonder what is on the horizon. People are innovating all over the continent with bio-gas, small scale hydro, wind, and solar power. Where people have electricity, there is a massive difference in economic activity, public services, productivity, and hope about the future. Energy is truly a platform that affects nearly every aspect of rural life. Today, Africa is mostly unserved by power grids but given innovation possibilities, are there not scalable ways to introduce renewable energy to millions of people who are completely unplugged from the global economy today?

Posted by Aleem Walji, Head of Global Development Initiatives, Google.org

HealthMap paving the way for earlier disease detection

Katy Bacon — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 01:01:00 +0000

Major kudos to HealthMap, one of our early grantees, for their work using free, web-based data sources to facilitate early outbreak detection and make it public on Google Maps.

HealthMap just published an excellent overview of their work and findings in the journal PLoS Medicine. The article, "Surveillance Sans Frontières: Internet-Based Emerging Infectious Disease Intelligence and the HealthMap Project," is definitely worth a read. Wired.com thought so too and posted here about HealthMap's Google.org supported efforts.

We're proud to support HealthMap as they continue to hone their methodology and expand their coverage, including the addition of Hindi, Portuguese, and Arabic language information sources to their current suite of Chinese, Spanish, Russian, French and English. Way to go HealthMap...keep up the good work!

Posted by Corrie Conrad, Associate, Predict and Prevent

Getting ahead of the curve in fighting disease

Katy Bacon — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 22:19:00 +0000

Posted by Amy Luers, Program Manager, Environment, Predict and Prevent

The Myanmar cyclone and extreme flooding in Iowa are among the most recent beats in what seems to be a constant pulse of extreme weather-related disasters across the globe. Floods, hurricanes, heatwaves, and droughts nearly always bring with them various threats to public health– including the emergence and spread of infectious diseases. However, these threats now loom even larger with the expected rise in the frequency and intensity of extreme events as a result of the Earth’s changing climate.

In times of disaster our vulnerabilities are revealed. While the recent extreme events cannot be directly attributed to climate change, they are omens of what lie ahead and their devastating impacts raise serious questions about society’s vulnerability to, and its ability to cope with continued climate change.

The good news is that environmental and health scientists are beginning to work together to get us ahead of the curve and prepare for the changes underway by designing new analytical tools, providing access to real-time data, and developing forecasts of emerging infectious diseases. For example, Madeleine Thomson and Stephen Connor at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) have developed a Summer Institute 2008 on Climate Information for Public Health. This institute offers people the opportunity to learn practical methods for integrating climate knowledge and information into public health decision-making.

Yesterday the National Press Club hosted scientists at an event examining the challenges and opportunities to predict and protect global public health from our changing climate. These are the same challenges and opportunities that the Predict and Prevent Initiative seeks to support. Our own Frank Rijsberman participated in the event and outlined Google.org’s efforts to support projects that advance the use of climate and weather information to help predict and prevent emerging infectious diseases. You can watch the panel Frank participated in, “Changing Climate, Changing Health Patterns: What will it take to Predict and Protect?” here.

The Associated Press covered the event with an in-depth article. It's encouraging to see this growing interest in health as a part of the climate change discussion, especially given the WHO's dedication of 2008 World Health Day to climate and health.

A conversation in Kisii

Katy Bacon — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 16:56:00 +0000

Posted by Meryl Stone, Associate, Google.org

A recent field visit took me to Kisii, a Kenyan town close to the shores of Lake Victoria. The population has swelled to 100,000 from approximately 70,000 largely because of refugees fleeing the post-election violence in other parts of Kenya. Local authorities expect to see that population double over the next ten years. Providing public services, especially water and sanitation, to this growing population is an enormous challenge.

In 2000, the international community made a commitment to the UN Millennium Development Goals to help communities access basic public services, like health, education, water and sanitation. One the key milestones of Goal 7 is to "halve the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation by 2015." As of 2004, the MDG Monitor shows the nations bordering Lake Victoria- Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya only 60% of their populations have access to improved drinking water sources.

While great progress is being made in Kisii, local officials say far less than 60% of their population has adequate service, despite what the official statistics say. New water pipes have been donated to the local water provider. This has doubled the capacity, but it only reaches half of Kisii's estimated population (50,000). Water kiosks stand proudly along the main road. And yet, the taps run dry. The connections to the main line are not even functional. Young women still trudge the kilometers to the river, at risk to their own security, to collect water. Bright blue toilet stalls line the periphery of a girls school. While the school has seen an increase in attendance since the installation of these toilets, they continue to be plagued by their inability to deal with the sanitation requirements of their students. As we depart, the headmistress of the school pleads with us to help with the sanitation problem.

Some more recent data gathered from towns surrounding Lake Victoria in Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya, tell us a very different story than information from the MDG Monitor. This story is closer to the facts reported to us on the ground: while basic infrastructure (water pipes, points, toilets) may exist, those facilities are rarely functional, affordable or accessible, indicating to us that access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation services is substantially lower than many think. Presented with this information at a recent UN-Habitat meeting in Nairobi, international donors and development agencies were astonished. They asked, "how come we didn't know about this earlier?"

And yet, unsurprisingly, the people of Kisii have long known that they don't have appropriate water and sanitation services. They may not have even heard of the MDG's. They are likely unaware of the conversations that transpire amongst donors and development agencies and help shape where resources are allocated. They are having their own conversations about what they need. But who can they tell? Who hears their voices?

Our challenge going forward is to help amplify these voices and contribute to efforts to inform these local discussions.

Plug-in conference highlights, day 2

Katy Bacon — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 14:35:00 +0000

Posted by David Bercovich, Project Manager, Google.org

Day two of the Google.org-Brookings Institution conference was punctuated by a panel moderated by Tom Friedman. The lively discussion covered topics including policy leadership, innovative business models, the potential for plug-ins to become ‘greener’ over time, and the security and stability of the grid. Two important themes emerged – the importance of plug-ins and clean energy for U. S. economic competitiveness and the policy and leadership needed to make this industry transformation a reality.

Jon Wellinghoff, Commissioner of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), surprised many in the audience by describing the 40 million electric vehicles on the road today in China (many of which are scooters) and emphatically argued that the grid is ready for plug-ins today. John Podesta, President of the Center for American Progress, credited Germany’s feed-in tariff with creating a vibrant solar industry in Germany and causing the U. S. market share of the global solar industry to decline from 45% to 10%. Assistant Secretary of Energy Andy Karsner announced a $30 million Department of Energy investment in plug-in vehicle technology. Sue Tierney talked about the fact that leadership on plug-ins is currently happening outside of Washington at the state level and within the business community. Finally, Congressman Jay Inslee inspired the crowd by suggesting that we need visionary leadership on plug-in vehicles and renewable energy, likening the climate crisis to the challenge put forth by John F. Kennedy when he launched the Apollo program to put a man on the moon in 10 years.

Participants plug in

Katy Bacon — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 23:07:00 +0000

Posted by Jenny Kwan, Climate and Energy Intern, Google.org

Hundreds of participants gathered today in Washington, DC as the Google.org - Brookings Institution conference kicked off. It was exciting to be able to see, in person, the latest electric car technology.

Outside the hotel we talked to Patrick from GM about their new Chevy Volt. If you look for it you can also spot the A123 car in the background.

Inside the conference room, I got to check out the latest Tesla. Unfortunately it's a little out of my price range...

I also met a bunch of people from around the US and the world and asked what brought them to the conference. Felix Kramer with CalCars who was one of the first to bring electric vehicles to Washington DC many years ago:

And Seth from New York and Lars from Sweden were here to check out the crowd and learn about the latest news and technology:

Broad coalition charged up to electrify vehicles

Katy Bacon — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 22:50:00 +0000

Posted by David Bercovich, Program Manager, Google.org

On another day of record-high gas prices, the Google.org/Brookings Institution conference on plug-in vehicles kicked off in Washington, DC today. Electrifying transportation impacts our economy, national security, and environment, and conference sessions overflowed with interested attendees. The lively afternoon session highlighted the broad coalition supporting plug-ins and demonstrated that the technology we need to electrify transportation is here today.

Jim Woolsey passionately argued that our dependence on oil is a national security emergency and that countries like Japan and Brazil have demonstrated the potential to overhaul an automotive fleet in a short period of time. Shai Agassi described Project Better Place and their plans to rapidly deploy electric vehicles in Israel.

Several speakers, including Mark Duvall from EPRI, referenced the landmark EPRI / NRDC study on the impact of significant deployment of plug-in hybrids, including the finding that our current electric grid could power 73% of our vehicles if we charged them at night. Peter Darbee from PG&E talked about how plug-in vehicles could work with smart electricity meters to increase the efficiency of the grid.

Panelsists also highlighted consumer demand for plug-ins. For example, Chelsea Sexton pointed out the need to anticipate (and invest in) rapid product improvement, reminding participants that we didn’t know we wanted portable video MP3 players to replace our Walkmans until devices like the iPod emerged.

You can check out the webcast of tonight’s session with Senator Alexander, Congressman Dingell, and Fred Smith from FedEx starting around 7pm EDT.

Survey says, "Plug in, Washington"

Katy Bacon — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 03:17:00 +0000

Posted by Michael Terrell, Program Manager, Google.org

A new survey commissioned by Google.org shows that three out of four voters support an active government role in promoting plug-in electric cars and trucks. The poll of more than 700 likely voters covered topics ranging from knowledge about plug-ins to opinions on how the government should promote them.

Plug-in electric vehicles run like regular hybrid cars, except they have larger batteries, recharge from a standard wall outlet, and can go more miles with less gas. Some plug-ins are purely electric and don’t need gasoline at all. Given today's record-high gas prices and concerns about energy security, plug-ins represent a promising solution for reducing oil dependence, reducing the cost of driving, and fighting global warming.

Poll data showed a majority of voters said they would be more likely to vote for a candidate who supports federal efforts to bring plug-ins to the market, and more than 60 percent of voters are willing to spend more money to own a plug-in vehicle.

Over the next two days, Google.org and the Brookings Institution are hosting a conference in Washington, DC, "Plug-in Electric Vehicles 2008: What Role for Washington?" The conference will bring together Members of Congress, auto and utility executives, technologists, and plug-in advocates to spotlight plug-ins, examine their potential, and explore different federal policies to promote them.

For more on the survey, check out our summary of findings or the complete survey results. For more on using public policy to advance plug-ins, see Getting Policymakers to Plug-In. You can view the conference webcast here beginning tomorrow.

Prioritizing solutions for the world’s challenges

Katy Bacon — Thu, 29 May 2008 22:34:00 +0000

Posted by Frank Rijsberman, Program Director, Google.org

Bjorn Lomborg likes to tackle “grand challenges." In 2004, he organized the Copenhagen Consensus to have teams of economists recommend solutions to the world’s greatest problems. Experts were asked to assess what solutions provided the biggest bang for our buck in areas that spanned politics, economics, and the environment. Google.org adviser Lant Pritchett authored one of the ten "challenge papers" on education, and I did one on water and sanitation. The results were controversial not so much because of what was ranked at the top - HIV/AIDS - but because of what was at the bottom - climate change.

On Sunday May 25, the Danish Prime Minister opened Copenhagen Consensus 2008, the sequel. Lant Pritchett and I are back too. Lant authored one of two official critiques of the new Education challenge paper. Alix Zwane and I critiqued the ‘08 Water and Sanitation Challenge Paper by Dale Whittington and colleagues. In our contribution we used recent results from research that Alix and colleagues at Harvard and UC Berkeley produced. This work, based on results from field work in Kenya, was funded by one of the first Google.org grants and shows that novel water treatment products (one of which is marketed under the name WaterGuard) for home use can be cost-effective ways to reduce diarrhea, a major cause of child mortality. In contrast to the research that Alix and I refer to, Whittington's challenge paper is more pessimistic about whether water and sanitation interventions are the best use of scarce resources that are supposed to improve the lives of the poor. They base this claim mostly on the expense of the technologies they consider (wells, piped water and sewerage).

In our review, Alix and I argue that a key reason that water services are not working for the poor is the same reason why other public services are failing the poor: a lack of accountability between providers, policymakers, and consumers that has resulted in bad management and governance. The best technologies in the world can fail in these settings. That is the basic premise of Google.org’s Inform and Empower Initiative. We believe that accountability is linked to information quality and information flows. Citizens and civil society can hold governments accountable if informed accurately of what is being done. Governments can do a better job of improving coverage levels if they know better where need is greatest. The Inform and Empower initiative supports activities that make this information available and actionable.

Tomorrow the panel of 8 economic experts, including 5 Nobel prize winners, will determine its ranking of the Copenhagen Consensus 08 solutions. In the meantime, you can determine your own ranking at Times Online.

Dan Reicher on plug-ins

Katy Bacon — Mon, 19 May 2008 21:02:00 +0000

Posted by Katy Bacon, Google.org Team

Check out this video of Fortune Magazine's Mark Gunther interviewing Dan Reicher. Dan explains the RechargeIT program, talks about the potential for vehicle to grid technologies, and discusses the future of electric cars.

Responding to Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar (Burma) and Earthquake in China

Katy Bacon — Fri, 16 May 2008 23:46:00 +0000

Posted by Larry Brilliant, Executive Director, Google.org

We're extremely saddened by the loss of life in both Myanmar (Burma) and China. In the days since the cyclone in Myanmar (Burma), teams across Google have been working to contribute to relief efforts. For disaster relief responders on the ground, the Google Earth and Maps teams created Google Earth layers of storm track and flood analysis, storm cloud animation, and on-the-ground imagery. To increase awareness of how people can support relief, the Google Grants team highlighted grantees working in the region, and there is a public service announcement on Google's advertising content network.

To learn more about how to support disaster relief and recovery efforts, visit this microsite. To match funds generated by the site, we said we'd donate up to $1 million to disaster relief organizations. Our first round of grants, totaling $600,000, went through today via our donor advised fund at Tides Foundation to:

CARE
Doctors Without Borders
Friends of the World Food Program; Emergency Telecommunication Centers Project
Save the Children

Responding to the tragic earthquake in China, many teams at Google developed ways to help people get the most useful and current earthquake information. Examples include public service announcements on Google's Content Network, a targeted forum on Google-Tianya, a search product to help locate missing loved ones, and an earthquake situation map with real-time detailed information on the different geographies, travel and road conditions to/from the region, and the latest disaster relief news and donation channels and contacts. In addition, Googlers across the world have organized relief activities such as blood donation and cash drives. Google.org will donate more than $1.5 million to on-the-ground relief organizations. Finally, tens of thousands of dollars of employee donations to non-profits have been matched by Google's gift matching program.

To learn more about how to support disaster relief and recovery efforts in China, visit this microsite. You can also learn more through Google's China homepage and the Google China Blog.

Evaluating the Right to Information

Katy Bacon — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 19:26:00 +0000

Posted by Salimah Samji, Program Manager, Google.org

People in developing countries often lack information that is critical for their well-being. For example, in India, the poor often do not know what they are entitled to and what services are available to them. I recently attended an international conference on the Right to Public Information at the Carter Center and learned that there are approximately 70 RTI (Right to Information) laws in the world. However surprisingly, little has been done to evaluate whether these laws are accomplishing their stated and unstated objectives.

Access to meaningful information is critical to Google.org's Inform and Empower initiative in India. To help us better understand how to make the Right to Information (RTI) more effective in India, we are delighted that Shekhar Singh who is an active member of the people's movement for the right to information has agreed to conduct a study of the use and implementation of the Act across various stakeholders in India (including public authorities, information commissions, media, judiciary, NGOs and corporate sector). The objective of this study is to determine the strengths and weaknesses of the Act, the constraints preventing effective implementation and the ways in which access to information affects people's lives.

By supporting this study, we hope to generate awareness about the Act, explore the possibility of creating tools for Information Commissioners and other government officials to better use the information, and systematize the way RTI requests could made publicly available online or through other channels. We want to help RTI achieve its full potential and hope that this study will be a first step in that direction.

An editorial in yesterday's The Indian Express highlighted the importance the RTI, and the effectiveness of its implementation.

New uses for Google Earth

Katy Bacon — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 20:32:00 +0000

Posted by Christiaan Adams, Google Earth & Maps Specialist, Google.org

Google Earth is a great tool for exploring the world in ways never before possible. Many of the non-profits and other public-benefit organizations that we work with find it especially useful for showing people the remote places where they work and telling their stories in a very compelling way.

Have you ever looked at the amazing high-resolution images in Google Earth and wondered when the photo was taken? Well now you can stop wondering! Google Earth 4.3 was launched this week, and one of the many new features is the "imagery acquisition date."

Simply zoom in on and move your mouse cursor over the high-resolution imagery; the status bar will display the date when the imagery was acquired. This will be especially useful for organizations concerned about changes in the environment.

For anyone interested in learning more about Google Earth, its features, and how to make it useful, Nigel Woof of Map Action has written a great paper (1MB PDF) that you should check out. It looks at Google Earth's differences from and relationship with traditional Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software, and how it can be used in humanitarian relief and other public benefit work.

Information and the developing world

Katy Bacon — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 20:16:00 +0000

Posted by Aleem Walji, Head of Global Development Initiatives, Google.org

Two members of our team recently attended an international conference at the Carter Center on the right to information (RTI). I must admit that I didn't have much knowledge in this area and didn't even realize that the US passed the Freedom of Information Act (FOAI) more than 40 years ago. Today, roughly 70 countries have adopted legislation that theoretically gives their citizens the right to ask for and receive from their governments information on any number of issues, including property records, tax files, and identity files.

This may sound rather vague and unimportant. But in some developing countries access to birth certificates can be critical in getting access to basic public services like immunizations, basic education, and land records (important as collateral when seeking loans). For the poor, this access is particularly important, but finding even simple records of identity can be much harder than you might imagine. The ability of bureaucrats to control access to what is "public" puts them in position to make all kinds of demands. For example, getting access to a birth certificate (technically a public record) can take months, involve dozens of steps, and include bribes at every stage. Without basic identify documents, the poor are often left without access to essential public services reserved for "official citizens".

Governments increasingly are putting public information online, even in the developing world. However, "online" doesn't always mean searchable or crawlable. In other words, you have to know where it is to find it. How would you even know where to look? Participants at the conference were captivated by the idea of making high value, high impact public records like land registries and identify documents available online in a format that is easy to search and find. Google's experience in digitizing books and making them available online was cited as the kind of effort that could be useful in helping give people in developing countries access to the public information they need. There is some work already happening at Google on making government records crawlable.

The possibility is exciting. Could poor rural people get access to birth certificates, death certificates or land titles one day through their mobile phones? It's worth thinking about. Even if they have to pay to access them, the cost of getting access to critical data at important times would more than pay for itself. As the penetration of mobile phones in rural areas has shown, people are willing to pay for access to tools and information that give them what they want when they need it most.

World Health Organization highlights climate change – health linkage

Katy Bacon — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 15:41:00 +0000

Posted by Amy Luers, Program Manager, Google.org

The World Health Organization (WHO) has dedicated today, World Health Day 2008, to raising awareness of the health risks of global climate change. Health belongs in the climate change discussion, and we're glad WHO and its member countries are using today to bring the linkage to the forefront.

Climate’s effects on health are wide reaching. Climate affects the quality of air we breathe and the quantity and quality of water resources. It affects the productivity of agriculture, distribution of pests and disease, and the severity and frequency of heatwaves, droughts, floods, and wildfires. As a result, climate change is not just an environmental issue but fundamentally a human health and livelihoods issue.

We are already experiencing the impacts of climate change across the globe. In fact, a WHO report concluded the climate changes since the mid-1970s may have caused about 150,000 deaths in 2000. The impacts of climate change are disproportionately felt in the poorest regions of the world.

Change in WHO estimated mortality per year (per million people) attributable to climate change by the year 2000. This map is based on WHO data for climate-sensitive health outcomes including: cardiovascular diseases, diarrhea, malaria, inland and coastal flooding, and malnutrition. Learn more about the link of climate and health.

If global emissions of heat-trapping gases continue, the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) projects that global temperatures could rise as much as 4°C more by the end of the century with an associated rise in risks to human health.

The global community is just beginning to understand the impact that continued climate change is likely to have on the distribution of infectious diseases. Check out the post by our mapping specialists where they describe the Google Earth layers they developed with scientists researching the affects climate may have on dengue and malaria transmission. You can also download these Google Earth layers here.

While some climate change impacts on public health and the environment are now unavoidable due to our past emissions of greenhouse gases, the severity of the impacts will depend on actions we take today to both reduce future emissions and prepare for the changes ahead. At Google.org we are working to reduce greenhouse gas emission by developing utility-scale renewable energy cheaper than coal and accelerating the commercialization of plug-in vehicles through the RechargeIT initiative, while the Predict and Prevent initiative team is working to help prepare the world's poor to manage the rising number emerging infectious diseases in our rapidly changing world.

Global warming heats up infectious diseases

Katy Bacon — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 15:32:00 +0000

Posted by Christiaan Adams, Google Earth & Maps Specialist, Google.org, and France Lamy, Program Manager, Google.org

With the World Health Organization (WHO) and World Health Day 2008 drawing attention to climate change and health today, we wanted to show you some cool animated Google Earth layers that illustrate how infectious diseases may spread as the earth warms. Warmer climates make good habitats for mosquitoes. Many diseases, such as dengue fever and malaria, are spread by mosquitoes. As the planet continues to get warmer due to greenhouse gas emissions, these diseases are projected to spread and add to the other burdens of climate change, especially in the developing world.

The Google Earth (KML) file linked below will show you projections for the changes in transmission of dengue fever around the globe and of malaria in Africa and specifically Zimbabwe. These layers were created in collaboration with a number of scientists whose studies provided the data, including Simon Hales, Frank Tanser and Kris Ebi. There's also a layer that shows the estimated deaths related to climate change in the year 2000.

To view the layers, download this KML file and open it in Google Earth on your computer. If you do not have the latest version of Google Earth (4.2) installed, you can download it here.

To see the animations, turn on one layer at a time in the Places panel on the left, by clicking the round button next to the layer name. Once the layer is on, you can play the animation by clicking the play arrow on the right side of the time slider (at the top of the screen).

Clicking the "start here" links or layer names will get you to more information and instructions. Be sure to look at all the layers to see how our warming climate will affect health in ways you might not have expected.

Public Heath Heroes

Katy Bacon — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 00:12:00 +0000

Posted by Kataneh Sarvian, Coordinator, Google.org

Last night the University of California, Berkeley hosted the 12th Annual Public Health Heroes Awards Ceremony in San Francisco. The goal of the Public Health Heroes honor is to broaden awareness and understanding of the public health field by recognizing individuals and organizations for their contributions to promoting and protecting the health of the human population. Past recipients include our own Dr. Larry Brilliant. Dr. Mark Smolinski, Predict and Prevent Initiative Director, started off the night by handing the first award to Nancy Aossey, who accepted the award on behalf of the International Medical Corps.

International Medical Corps (IMC) is a global, humanitarian, nonprofit organization dedicated to saving lives and relieving suffering through health care training and relief and development programs. Mark expressed gratitude to IMC for sharing their wisdom and advice while we were creating InSTEDD (Innovative Support to Emergencies, Diseases, and Disasters) in the early days of Google.org. The other heroes recognized were Donald P. Francis, for his leadership in the eradication of smallpox, the discovery of HIV, and the control of Ebola hemorrhagic fever; David A. Kessler, for his leadership and courage in challenging the U.S. tobacco industry; and Barbara Staggers for her leadership in promoting adolescent health, particularly among high-risk, urban, and minority youth.

A big thanks and congratulations to this year's dedicated and courageous heroes!

Happy Birthday Google Grants!

Katy Bacon — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 17:31:00 +0000

Posted by Katy Bacon, Google.org Team

This week, Google Grants marks its fifth year. The program currently supports more than 4,000 grantees and to date has provided approximately $273.3 million in free AdWords advertising. You can learn more about the history of the program on the recently launched Google Grants Blog.

Aspen Institute Award honors CalCars, Google.org grantee

Katy Bacon — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 18:19:00 +0000

Posted by Kirsten Olsen, Program Manager, Google.org

CalCars just received the Aspen Institute's First Annual Energy and Environment Award for its prominent role in promoting PHEVs and the electrification of transportation. The inaugural award is meant to celebrate success and provoke conversations about ways to emulate and expand upon the success stories honored. We are thrilled about this honor for CalCars and not the least bit surprised that their contribution to the field of plug-ins has been recognized by such a prestigious organization. CalCars founder Felix Kramer has been instrumental in evangelizing about the benefits of plug-ins and strategically influencing key decision makers about their potential to dramatically reduce carbon emissions. There is no doubt that CalCars has already made history with their role in promoting this technology and we are proud to be a supporter of the organization.

Congratulations to Felix and the CalCars team!

aids2031 Young Leaders Summit

Katy Bacon — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 00:43:00 +0000

Posted by Bennet Marks, Google.org volunteer

Google.org recently hosted the aids2031 Young Leaders Summit at Google's headquarters in Mountain View, CA. More than 40 leaders in the fight against HIV/AIDS, most of them between 20 and 40 years of age, traveled to the conference from over 15 nations, including South Africa, Rwanda, Norway, the United Kingdom, China, Thailand, Bolivia, Argentina, the U.S., and Mexico.

aids2031 is a consortium of partners - including doctors, economists, epidemiologists, and biomedical, social, and political scientists - who have joined together to explore what we've learned from the fight against HIV/AIDS during the first quarter-century of the epidemic, and to come up with options and plans for changing the course of the epidemic over the next quarter-century.

According to latest estimates, about 33 million people are living with HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus), which causes AIDS. The disease has already killed about 25 million people. Sub-Saharan Africa has been hit especially hard, but the disease is spreading rapidly in other regions. AIDS doesn't only have calamitous effects on the health of individuals, but wreaks havoc on the economic and social stability of the countries affected. For more detailed information, see UNAIDS' 2007 AIDS Epidemic Update.

Some of the many topics discussed at the conference included:

Using modern technology, including the 3.3 billion mobile phones currently in use, to educate young people about AIDS prevention and treatment, and involve them in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
Identifying and mentoring young leaders in the fight against AIDS, and promoting intergenerational dialogue among AIDS activists.
Creating a Global Health & Development Corps, modeled on the Peace Corps and similar groups, that can organize and support young volunteers to go wherever they are needed to work on local health issues.

Many of the conference participants will be reuniting in August in Mexico City at the XVII International AIDS Conference. We are proud to have supported this convening as a critical part of aids2031 and its efforts to engage young leaders in the prevention of global health threats.

Google 101 for Development NGOs

Katy Bacon — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 22:03:00 +0000

Posted by John Lyman, Associate, Google.org

Last month, Google and Google.org gathered a group of development NGOs together in Washington D.C. to discuss and learn about new technology tools. Because non-profits' budgets are tight and available funds usually go towards mission-related programs, many organizations don't prioritize technology. Google's goal was to highlight free or cheap technologies that NGOs can use and let NGOs share experiences on how they have effectively used various technologies.

There were a few lessons learned:

There's a huge hunger in the non-profit sector for more help in this area. Even hands-on sessions for an hour can make a real difference.
Although technology tools are getting easier to use, many NGOs need an initial, gentle push into taking advantage of them.
Development NGOs, like other NGOs or businesses, have different technology needs based on size, mission, and budget. There is no one-size-fits-all model that works for them.

More details of the event are available on the Official Google Blog and videos of the sessions are available on Google.org's YouTube channel.

Google.org Calls on U.S. Congress to Support Renewable Energy

Katy Bacon — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 18:02:00 +0000

Posted by Michael Terrell, Program Manager, Google.org

Yesterday Google.org, along with representatives from the business and venture capital community, called on the U.S. Congress and the Bush Administration to work together to quickly approve extensions of the Production Tax Credit (PTC) and Investment Tax Credit (ITC). The PTC and the ITC are tax incentives designed to spur the market for renewable energy and are critical to financing a new renewable energy generation. The credits are currently scheduled to expire on December 31, 2008.

Speaking at a news conference at the Washington International Renewable Energy Conference, Dan Reicher, Google.org's Director of Climate Change and Energy Initiatives, said: “We are at the dawn of a green energy revolution that could fundamentally reshape the way the world generates energy. It is critical that we get the policy right in order to drive investment in clean energy and push these technologies out of the lab and into the mainstream. Policy makers can make or break this revolution."

The American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE), TechNet and the National Venture Capital Association sponsored the press conference which also included representatives of GE Energy Financial Services, Credit Suisse, and the venture capital firm Nth Power.

In a recent ACORE letter to Congress, over 350 industry leaders warned that a failure by Congress to immediately pass ITC/PTC extensions could jeopardize U.S. job creation and over 42,000 MW of planned renewable energy projects currently in development in 45 states. (That’s an amount equivalent to 75 base load electricity generation stations and enough to power 16 million homes.)

Investing in the "Missing Middle"

Katy Bacon — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 16:34:00 +0000

Posted by John Lyman, Associate, Google.org

Today Google.org, along with the Soros Economic Development Fund (SEDF) and the Omidyar Network, announced they are collaborating to create a $17 million enterprise investment company in India. The company is expected to provide capital to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and by doing so, help create jobs.

In many developing countries, large businesses use formal, bank-based credit and capital markets for their financing needs, while households and micro-entrepreneurs have access to micro-loans. SMEs are often stuck in the middle without reliable access to either, and they are largely absent from the formal economies of many of these countries.

The investment company is designed to help address this "missing middle." Most existing SME funds make investments in the $3-$5 million range in India, which leaves out a significant portion of the market. This new company, in contrast, will target equity opportunities between $500,000 and $3.5 million. The company is also expected to work closely with the Base of the Pyramid Lab at the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad in order to leverage the school's SME experience.

During a recent trip to India, our Google.org SME team visited a number of businesses and financial organizations and saw firsthand that there is a "missing middle". We hope this investment company will help start to fill it in.

For more detail on our initiative to fuel the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises, watch this:

Update: We'd like to alert you to two job postings envisioned for the investment advisory company described below. The proposed Managing Director would oversee the growth of an expected portfolio of 10-15 investments, with representatives from the investors. Assisting would be an Investments Director who will help with analyzing prospective investments and preparing evaluations and reports. Both positions are planned for Hyderabad, India for Spring 2008, and require a strong understanding of rural Indian business opportunities and investment fundamentals. To apply, qualified applicants may send a cover letter and resume or C.V. to resumes@IndiaSMEs.com.

From Bellagio to Bangkok and beyond!

Katy Bacon — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 20:59:00 +0000

Posted by Corrie Conrad, Associate, Google.org Predict and Prevent Initiative

This past December, the Rockefeller Foundation hosted a gathering of 23 leading experts and representatives of networks on infectious disease surveillance from around the world. Acting in their personal capacities at this meeting in Bellagio, Italy, the group agreed on a Call To Action to advance global capacity for public health surveillance.

Terry Taylor, Director of the Global Health and Security Initiative (one of the Predict and Prevent initiative's initial grantees), announced the Call to Action at the Prince Mahidol Award Conference in Bangkok, Thailand. Over 300 players in global public health—including WHO officials, diplomats, donors, and Ministers of Health—were at the conference (with Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn!).

The group committed themselves to address coordination and resource concerns for infectious disease surveillance by:

Strengthening national capacity and regional networks through electronic means and joint public-private projects.
Connecting regional networks into a global cooperative activity.
Encouraging collaboration of the human, animal and agricultural sectors for a holistic approach to infectious disease surveillance.
Promoting the development of national capacities and regional networks.

Such commitments will help countries meet their obligations under the World Health Organization’s new International Health Regulations, which came into place last June and require committed countries to improve public health security by strengthening disease surveillance and response systems. Since it is international law, enforcement of the IHR will depend upon the political will of each country.

From Bellagio to Bangkok and beyond, we’ve heard the call to action and are excited to get involved. Others ready to respond with additional expertise, resources and commitment are invited to email globalhealthandsecurity@nti.org to join the effort.

Google.org at World Economic Forum, Davos

Katy Bacon — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 00:40:00 +0000

Posted by Jacquelline Fuller, Head of Advocacy and Communications, Google.org

At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Larry Page, Sergey Brin and Larry Brilliant held a spirited Conversation on Climate Change and Google.org which was moderated by Tom Friedman. During the question and answer session, audience members Al Gore and Van Jones spoke on the need for a strategic persuasion campaign and green collar jobs. You can view both videos here:

Entrepreneurs pitch their businesses

Katy Bacon — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 23:56:00 +0000

Posted by Rachel Payne, Program Manager, Google.org

Last fall, a dozen Google employees served as lecturers, one-on-one consultants, and business plan evaluators for entrepreneurs participating in the Believe Begin Become business plan competition in Tanzania and Ghana. They were very impressed by the participants and winners, and they recognized that entrepreneurs in developing countries rarely get the chance to directly interact with investors to get the funding and support they need for their businesses. Together with TechnoServe, and using FlipVideo cameras, the volunteers filmed the entrepreneurs. Our video production team helped us quickly assemble the videos that now appear on the recently launched Believe Begin Become TechnoServe Channel on You Tube.

On the channel, you will find an inspiring group of entrepreneurs talking about the opportunities and challenges they face running their businesses. In Tanzania, the enterprises that we work with range from selling carbon credits to rebuilding a local high school and running a radio station -- businesses that you will have the opportunity to view firsthand on the channel. Perhaps you will be as inspired as we are. People who want to do more to support these small and medium-sized (SME) businesses in Africa and elsewhere, can contribute directly from the You Tube Channel by using the Google Checkout payment option. We hope that sharing these stories will raise awareness of SMEs, provide firsthand accounts of the experiences of entrepreneurs in Africa, and create a direct channel for helping these businesses grow and thrive.

Googleplex struck by the Volt!

Katy Bacon — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 21:41:00 +0000

Posted by Adam Borelli, Team Coordinator, Google.org

Google.org's RechargeIT initiative welcomed the Chevy Volt concept-car to our Mountain View campus yesterday. The Chevy Volt is a plug-in extended-range electric vehicle that operates on a combination of gasoline (biodiesel, E85, and gasoline fuels) and electricity. Its large lithium-ion battery pack allows it to run only on electricity for up to 40 miles. Since 78% of U.S. commuters drive 40 miles or less from work, charging overnight can provide enough energy for most daily commutes. On longer trips, the car uses its combustion engine as a "range extender" but GM still expects it to get about 150 miles per gallon. According to GM, the Volt is expected to save drivers 570 gallons (or $1368 per year, electricity included) in fuel cost.

Googlers were invited to check out the Volt and ask GM representatives questions about the vehicle as part an effort to showcase different green technologies and educate employees about their potential benefits. Many major auto-makers are exploring the production of plug-ins in the coming years, and we look forward to checking out other models on our campus as they become available. However, we also hope to see commitments to a schedule of production from the auto-makers so that cars like the Volt will be more than just displays on our campus. Plug-in vehicles are an important solution for reducing emissions produced by the transportation sector. Of course, by reducing emissions, we reduce our dependence on oil. We are happy to see auto-makers working to make this solution a reality.

Putting the Bali roadmap in context

Katy Bacon — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 16:25:00 +0000

Posted by Michael Terrell, Team Member, Google.org

It came down to the 11th hour, and then dragged on for an extra day -- but after two weeks of negotiations, delegates at the UN climate change conference in Bali settled on a plan for reaching a new international agreement to fight climate change. The Bali action plan provides a roadmap for negotiating an expanded and strengthened international emissions reduction pact by the end of 2009.

The deal leaves many contentious issues unresolved. It does not include any explicit emissions reductions goals or targets; in fact the scientific recommendations on the emissions reductions needed to halt climate change are relegated to a footnote. The plan simply lays out a process to negotiate the emissions targets to succeed the limits set by Kyoto Protocol, which expire in 2012. It also provides a platform to begin talks to address growing concerns about adaption, deforestation and facilitating transfer of clean technologies to developing countries.

At the outset of this conference, we noted that the scale and complexity of the climate crisis demands collective action by the world's governments. The Bali roadmap, while leaving much to be desired, represents an important step in this process. All the parties are still at the table and are now committed to spending the next two years crafting a more comprehensive global solution to fighting climate change. Many were hopeful that the outcome of the U.S. Presidential election in 2008 will help breathe new life into this process, regardless of whether the President-elect is a Republican or Democrat.

But given how difficult it was to reach an agreement in Bali and how acrimonious the negotiations were, the rest of us can't afford to wait for the world to negotiate a new climate agreement. We need to take action now. Fortunately, many people around the world are doing just that. The numerous panels and side events at Bali were filled with examples of concrete actions people are taking now to build a cleaner future. We wrote on how the world's local governments are launching their own initiatives to fight global warming and how others are working to ensure that any solutions take into account equity and justice considerations. Another hot topic of conversation here was the growing efforts of many companies to reduce their carbon footprints and take a leadership role in promoting smart energy policies.

The flurry of activity among all of these groups is encouraging. The result at Bali and the tough road ahead suggests that the international treaty process will not be sufficient to confront this challenge with the speed and scope with which it demands, at least in the short term. To stop climate change, we all must take responsibility and act, whether by making choices to reduce our personal carbon footprint, engaging with family and friends in our communities, or elevating the climate crisis to the top of the political agenda. For the Google.org team, it means a renewed commitment to putting our own resources to work.

Demanding climate justice in Bali

Katy Bacon — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 17:15:00 +0000

Posted by Kirsten Olsen, Project Manager, Google.org

Though all 15,000 participants of the UN climate conference have come to Bali to discuss the global response to climate change, there are many points of entry to the debate. Some enter through the policy door, seeking better rules to mandate emissions reductions. Others enter through the investment door, seeking profit from carbon markets and clean technologies. And an increasing number of participants come through the global development door, seeking "climate justice" for poor populations effected by global warming. As Meena Raman of Friends of the Earth International in Malaysia explained, “We all agree that climate change is happening, but now we have to ask the question of how to share the burden of adjustment.”

Just how large that “burden of adjustment” will be is uncertain, but the UN Human Development Report released in anticipation of UN Conference proclaims that “climate change is the defining human development challenge of the 21st Century” and that “failure to respond to that challenge will stall and then reverse international efforts to reduce poverty.” The idea of climate justice comes into play when considering who will pay for climate adaptation when those countries that have done the least to cause global warming bear the greatest cost. Different groups here in Bali have even attempted to put a dollar amount to the cost of adaptation. Oxfam, for example, estimates the cost to be $50 billion per year and far more if emissions are not cut rapidly.

For many NGOs in Bali, climate change offers an opportunity to engage a new community of stakeholders and introduce ideas of environmental equity into the debate. Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, the Chairperson of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, described the phenomenon as a “moment to challenge traditional development paradigms.” Local organizations such as the Indonesian Civil Society Forum for Climate Justice have sprung up in the past year to address the climate challenge while more established NGOs such as UNICEF have begun to incorporate work on climate justice and adaptation into their work.

Even though several side events and exhibit booths here in Bali focus on climate justice and adaptation, they are still a relatively small percentage of the overall NGO representation at the conference. Michael Dorsey from Dartmouth College and the Durban Group for Climate Justice points out that the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA) still dominates in Bali with 336 representatives making up 8% of all NGOs listed. That is equal to more than the delegation of Greenpeace (~2%), the World Wildlife Fund (~1.6%) and Friends of the Earth (~1.5%) combined.

One silver lining that is gaining momentum here in Bali is the idea of "green jobs" created in the new energy economy. Most admit that further research on this topic is necessary to determine which sectors of society will benefit most from these jobs, but the concept resonates with many climate justice advocates in search for solutions.

Laboratories of the low carbon economy

Katy Bacon — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 01:18:00 +0000

Posted by David Bercovich, Project Manager, Google.org

The theme today in Bali perhaps could best be summarized by the bumper sticker maxim, "think globally, act locally." While the delegates continued negotiations on an international climate change agreement, several events highlighted efforts by local communities around the world to confront the climate crisis and secure their own clean energy future.

Local cities from Milano, Italy to Betim, Brazil to Bhubaneswar, India shared their experiences deploying renewable energy projects in their cities. In partnership with ICLEI, they have banded together with other cities around the world (ICLEI map below of participating cities below) to share expertise and best practices on renewable energy and energy efficiency.

The U.S. Climate Acton Network highlighted efforts by U.S. states (including 9 of the country's 10 largest emitting states) to reduce emissions, along with the pledge by over 700 U.S. mayors to meet the Kyoto Protocol targets in their cities and towns. Other innovative programs mentioned included the City of Berkeley's solar home financing plan; Chapel Hill, North Carolina's free public transit; and the City of Austin's plan to power all city facilities with 100% renewable power.

The Climate Group released a report on state and regional Low Carbon Leaders showing that emissions reduction targets set by local governments are often more ambitious than commitments pledged by national governments under the Kyoto Protocol. ICLEI convened a series of local government climate sessions as parallel events to the Bali meetings.

The flurry of local activity represents some frustration with the pace of international action, according to German Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul. "We can't wait for every detail to be correct at the international level; we have to act now and we can act now if we act locally." Monika Zimmermann of ICLEI hopes the 'can-do' attitude of state and local governments will be contagious. "We're not just doing the right thing for our own sake, we want to prompt national governments and the international community to follow our lead."

Global Climate Change Conference kicks off in Bali

Katy Bacon — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 01:59:00 +0000

Posted by Michael Terrell, Team Member, Google.org

This week, representatives from 190 countries are gathering in Bali, Indonesia to begin framing an international climate change agreement to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. The delegates are joined by thousands more -- activists, local politicians, NGOs, businesses and others -- responding to the call for action.

The talks come on the heels of a comprehensive assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that presents the most sobering news on global warming to date. The IPCC, recent winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, concluded that evidence of global warming is "unequivocal," with 90% certainty that humans are the cause. According to IPCC Chairman Rajendra Pachauri, urgent action is needed to combat climate change, or the consequences for the planet could be “disastrous.”

The good news is that the IPCC has identified a wide a range of solutions for curbing greenhouse gas emissions that are both technologically feasible and economically competitive. Here at Google we are working to accelerate some of these technologies through our our recently announced Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal initiative, Google.org's RechargeIT program, and our 1.6 MW solar installation.

But our own efforts can only get us so far. That's why we are participating in the Bali conference. The world must chart the path to a clean energy future collectively.

Over the coming days, we'll share our reflections and the stories of those who are there. You can also check out the live webcast of the conference.