Green Daily

It doesn't take a stock broker to know that when the Dow plummets 500 points, the economy is in pretty bad shape, but how is this crisis affecting the clean energy revolution that we're seeing all these commercials about? Well, no surprises here -- it doesn't look good. Just as policy makers are trying to expand carbon trading schemes, the giant international investment banks that organize these projects are filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy. Ouch.

Lehman Brothers -- the bank that triggered yesterday's Wall Street nightmare -- wasn't a leader in the carbon trading world, but it was involved in a number of carbon offsetting projects around the world. Now, they're out of the picture. European investors expect to have a tough time getting financing for their projects across the EU. As they pondered yesterday's impact on renewable energy at a conference in London, they estimated a debt finance shortfall of $29B by 2020.

If there is a silver lining in these bankruptcies, it's the fact that the losses that dragged them down had nothing to do with the green sector. Green investments will hopefully remain attractive to investors.