Cleantech San Diego will host executives from Australia, Canada, Germany and Switzerland today to talk about their clean technology innovations.

The keynote speaker will be Evan Lovell, partner in the Virgin Green Fund, who has led more than $350 million in green-tech investments over the past decade.

Panelists include companies working on biofuels, water, solar and high-efficiency transportation.

The event begins at 4 p.m. at the Joan B. Kroc Center for Peace and Justice at the University of San Diego. Cost varies from $10 for students to $30 for Cleantech members and $60 for non-members.  For more information, visit cleantechsandiego.org

But some who attended the meetings, sponsored by the United Nations expressed muted hope that small steps could be made on a decades-long journey to reduce the planetary threat of rising global temperatures.

The United States entered the talks in a weak position because of a lack of action on domestic climate and energy legislation and continuing disputes with China and other major developing nations over verification of emissions reductions. The United Nations negotiating process itself is on the line, with many saying that the 190-nation talks cannot survive another debacle like that at Copenhagen last December.

This year's talks come at a low point for global climate diplomacy. Last year, more than 100 heads of state gathered with hopes of fashioning a binding treaty to address global warming. A year later, mid-level envoys are trickling into a Mexican resort with hopes, at best, of averting disaster.

Last year, President Obama had large majorities in Congress and hopes of passing a comprehensive climate and energy bill. Next year, he faces a new Congress much more dubious about the reality of climate change and considerably more hostile to international efforts to deal with it.

Still, leaders expressed belief that the United Nations remained the best, if not the only, place to address a problem that will require a global solution.

"We're not going to solve the whole problem this year, but we can lock in bigger and better agreements every year," said Christiana Figueres, the Costa Rican diplomat who took over this year as executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the body that convenes the talks.

"Multilateral negotiations such as this one involve not just solving an environmental problem but actually involve the transformation of economic patterns and the economic structure we have lived with for decades."

Read the rest of the NY Times blog here.

Los Angeles Bans Plastic Bags

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved a measure to ban plastic bags at grocery stores and other shops in unincorporated Los Angeles County areas.

The goal of the ordinance is to get people to use their reusable bags. It applies to grocery stores, drug stores, liquor stores and convenience stores.  Customers would no longer have plastic bags as an option. They would need to bring in their own reusable bag or they could purchase a paper one for 10 cents. That's to pay the store for the cost of the bag.

The measure, which will come back for a final vote when exact language is finalized, was approved on a 3-1 vote.  Large stores have until July 1, 2011 to comply. Smaller stores have until Jan. 1, 2012.

Read more on our blog .