Azure Dynamics, formerly of Toronto but now located in Oak Park, Michigan, announced today it has received a followup order from Puralotor Courier for 200 hybrid-electric delivery trucks, on top of the 205 trucks Azure has already delivered to Canada’s largest courier service. “The order represents a catapult into 2010 and beyond,” said Azure CEO Scot Harrison. “Our volume is up, costs are down, and we’re engaging new and repeat customers who increasingly understand our value proposition.” With this order, to be delivered in 2010, about 13 per cent of Purolator’s fleet is now composed of Azure’s hybrid-electric vehicles. Azure has been on a role, recently selling another 51 hybrid-electric delivery vans to FedEx and in October signing a deal with Ford Motor to come out with a pure battery-electric shuttle van in 2010.

I think the Toronto Star obituary I’m linking to here says it all in the headline: “The greatest mayor we never had.”

David Pecaut, a partner with Boston Consulting Group and probably one of the biggest champions of Toronto, died at 10 a.m. this morning after a two-year battle with cancer. I’ve met and spoke with David only a few times, so there are hundreds who know him much better, but I can’t help but feel great loss with this news. David founded the Toronto City Summit Alliance in 2002, and of the many projects he helped spearhead through this organization, one of the most recent — the initiative Greening Greater Toronto — has been a powerful force behind efforts to reduce the carbon footprint of Canada’s largest city and bolster the local innovation needed to do it. He was a galvanizing figure with a vision for a city that far too often underestimates its own potential.

My heart and thoughts go out to David’s wife and four children. Your city will miss you, David.

Fortunately I saw it for what is was, but a hoax e-mail went out today giving reporters the impression that Environment Canada had dramatically changed its tune regarding climate change policy. The fake press release, designed to look like it was coming from Environment Canada, refers to a new policy called Agenda 2020. It would set a binding emissions reduction target of 40 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020, compared to the 3 per cent committed by the government today. The press release, which has made up quotes from Environment Minister Jim Prentice, also promises to contribute 1 per cent of Canada’s GDP, or $13 billion, in 2010 toward a climate debate mechanism that would help developing countries adapt. The release came from www.enviro-canada.ca, which is a Web address that has been forwarded to the real Environment Ministry Web site at www.ec.gc.ca.

What’s perhaps even funnier is that an hour later another press release was sent out, purporting to come from the real Environment Canada, denouncing the earlier “spoof” e-mail and claiming the story had been picked up by the Wall Street Journal, European edition (seems like a spoof site as well). That second e-mail came from www.ec-gc.ca, also a fake Web address. Seems the hoaxsters are doing this to throw off the international media so that when the real Government of Canada press release comes out, nobody will know what’s true and what’s not true.

Will be interesting to see how this one plays out…

WWF-International released a study today ranking the cleantech market activities of countries around the world. The report predicts that by 2020 the cleantech industry will be worth $2.45 trillion, ranking as the third-largest global industry behind automobiles and electronics.

According to the 44-country ranking, measured by cleantech sales as a percentage of GDP, the Top 3 countries are Denmark, Brazil and Germany. China ranked sixth. The U.S. ranked 19th, just one position behind the United Kingdom. On the bottom half of the list are Australia, ranked 28th, and Canada, ranked 31st. Keith Stewart at WWF said the results come as a warning to Canada. “This report shows that Canada is far behind countries like the U.S. and China in investing in green technologies, in real and relative terms,” he said. “You can be sure the Chinese economy will not sit still while we sit on our hands.”

Stewart said it doesn’t help that come the end of January 2010 a Canadian federal incentive program designed to promote renewable energy development will run out of budgeted funds. While there is talk of re-charging the fund next year there is still likely to be a major funding gap, creating the kind of bust-boom cycle that once held back the U.S. wind and solar markets. Have we not learned from past mistakes?

Joe Romm over at Climate Progress has a good post about the framework for a bipartison climate and clean energy bill that was discussed today by Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC), John Kerry (D-MA) and Joe Lieberman (I-CT). They’re aiming to bring it to the Senate floor early next year and pass it into law during the current session of Congress. The bill commits to a 17 per cent reduction of CO2-equivalent emissions compared to a baseline year of 2005 by 2020. That’s about 3.4 per cent below 1990 levels, which is slightly better than the Canadian government’s weak commitment of around 3 per cent and far below the European Union’s 20 per cent reduction target (which some, such as U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown, say should be raised to 30 per cent). The chatter out there is that this U.S. bill, as watered down as it is, is still the best President Obama can hope for. At least it will get the ball moving on a continental cap-and-trade system. Like Canada, there’s lots of support in the U.S. bill for nuclear and “clean coal,” which is a shame considering it means resources that could be directed at energy efficiency and renewables will be absorbed by the established players. Of interest is the following statement: “We will make it easier to finance the construction of new nuclear power plants and improve the efficiency of the licensing process for traditional as well as small modular reactors.” This to me (and I may be wrong) is the first time I’ve seen a clear recognition of a boost to small modular reactors, which I wrote about recently. I think this is good, because the private sector can more easily finance smaller reactors on their own, meaning less vacuuming away of public funds from green energy.

It’s good to see some movement on a U.S. climate bill, but it’s still far, far short of what’s really needed. One can only hope that as the big U.S. ship moves to meet even these weak targets, perhaps the momentum will be so great that businesses, industry and consumers find it all the more easier to embrace clean energy and move beyond the targets. Wishful thinking, I know, but you’ll never turn the ship if you don’t turn the steering wheel.