An interesting effect of Al Gore's efforts was the recent TXU buyout deal. Due to the "greening" of a lot of the principals involved, the environmentalists were brought into the negotations and TXU's plans for 11 polluting coal plants was cut to 3 plants.
That's a huge reduction in new CO2 emissions.
In addition TXU agrees to get emissions to 1999 levels in 10 years. That's a big cut in current emissions.
Plus spend $400M on alternative energy.
Climate change has become a hot-button issue in the wake of a recent United Nations report that said with very high confidence that humans are contributing to global warming and the success of Al Gore's film "An Inconvenient Truth" - which took home an Os
Several of the principals mentioned Gore's crusade and the film about him and how it made them think.
They stated they did not want to be on the wrong side of history. In fairness, the local environmental groups who were fighting TXU deserve a lot of credit also. TXU buyers knew they could be tied up for years if they were going to fight them over the plants.
These are some of the heaviest hitters on Wall Street, Kohlberg Kravis, Goldman Sachs, Texas Pacific.
Bodes well for the world, real CO2 and pollution reduction by one of the biggest utilities in US with backing from the biggest Wall Street financial corporations.