Pretty interesting watching the interest in the environment continue to develop. Now Microsoft and the William J. Clinton Foundation have partnered to create a software to track carbon emissions. The idea is to create a standardized way to track carbon emissions so that cities can figure out more accurately if they are reducing emissions.

The plan is for Microsoft to provide the software for free. It may be available by the end of 2007. It would have many web-based tools and allow cities to share data.

Of course, free software really only means so much and people can be quite skeptical about the true motivations behind this kind of thing. Businesses don’t do these things just to be kind, after all. It’s good for the image at the very least. The real question will be how effective is the software.

Technorati Tags: microsoft, William J. Clinton Foundation, software, environment, carbon emissions