GigaOm offshoot Earth2Tech takes a look at one sizzling area of investment among venture capitalists: cleantech.

Armed with a (soon to be Rupert Murdoch's?) Dow Jones VentureOne report, Katie Fehrenbacher notes that VC funding is rising dramatically year over year, culminating in 140 financing rounds totaling $1.28 billion in 2006. That's twice the money that went into the space in 2005. Overall, it echoes many of the same themes of this earlier post.

So what's in store for 2007/2008?

Below are the seven key and shamelessly borrowed trends that may dictate where VC cash ends up during the next several months...

1. Internet/IT: “The IT and communications industries could and should become major cleantech players in 2007.”
2. China: China is the home to manufacturing and thus the home to those nasty environmental effects. “Will China be a clean tech superpower or environmental pariah?”
3. Water: Water management will be “as important as energy in 2007.”
4. Toxicity: Concerns over toxins is rising and startups can offer nontoxic solutions.
5. CEOs: High profile CEOs are leading initiatives, and this will continue in 2007.
6. Carbon innovation: We need technology for a low carbon economy — this will effect “market creation and purchasing decisions.”
7. Policy: Cleantech can mean jobs and economic development, and policy will support that.