CCAN in Copenhagen: Dispatch from the future

First of all, imagine this: the people of Copenhagen, Denmark, generate one-sixth of the greenhouse gas pollution per capita as people living in Washington, D.C. One sixth! That’s the first thing you notice when you come to Copenhagen, as I have, for the international climate talks. I’m here to represent your voice as a dedicated CCAN supporter. I’m also here to see the future.

Denmark as a nation gets nearly 25 percent of its electricity from wind farms. The city of Copenhagen itself is full of bicycles. They’re everywhere. And the subway system is world class. I saw a guy on the subway Sunday in Copenhagen carrying a Christmas tree. On the train. People do everything here, go everywhere, without cars! And Danes, at the same time, are consistently ranked in surveys as some of the happiest people on Earth. Radically low-carbon and happy people.

So I’m seeing the clean-energy future in practice this week. Too bad the world’s top leaders Continue reading

The Movement is Glowing

This just arrived in my inbox from May Boeve, policy coordinator at 350.org:

It’s been a wild day here inside the Bella Center–the tension and the drama are ratcheting up almost by the hour. The “350 language” has been in and out of the draft text of the agreement half a dozen times, and our allies are doing their best to keep it in. You should have seen President Nasheed this afternoon making the case in front of an auditorium packed with members of the global media.

As the policy coordinator for 350.org, I spend most of my time lobbying–waiting in the hallways for meetings to end so I can speak to delegates and ministers as they walk to their next session. And what I hear, over and over again, is “You’ve changed the mood of the meeting.” The relentless case you’ve made for the science of 350 has been extraordinarily effective–and it got a remarkable boost over the weekend from the thousands of vigils around the world.

In DC, Avaaz built a giant ark, which they called “Plan B.” The ark evokes the great flood with which billions around the world identify. It signifies the scale of calamity that climate change poses to communities across the globe and also represents hope for survival if world leaders take bold, ambitious, and immediate action. While hundreds of thousands of people were taking action across the world, activists gathered outside the Capitol to discuss the urgent need for “Plan A” – a fair, ambitious, and binding global climate treaty.

350.org just came out with another beautiful video from the worldwide vigils this Saturday. Take a look:

Plan B: The Ark

Maryland students gather at the candlelight vigil in DC next to the the ark (Plan B if Plan A- a binding, fair, and ambitious deal in Copenhagen- doesn’t happen)

How about some serious financing

Today, the Washington Post broke news of an announcement by Secretary of Energy Steven Chu that the United States was contributing $85 million to The Climate Renewables and Efficiency Deployment Initiative.

“The initiative — which includes $85 million from the United States and donations from industrialized nations such as Italy and Australia — aims to make energy-saving technology that already exists cheap enough to penetrate markets in India, parts of Africa and elsewhere. It is distinct from the major financing package the United States is expected to unveil this week as part of a broader climate deal.”

While it’s good to see initiatives such as these, the total amount and the contribution by the US fall of what international talks in Copenhagen need in order for a successful agreement. The broader deal the US is expected to unveil later this week will lay out around $1.2 billion in its 2010 budget for international climate aid and mitigation, and Senator John Kerry recently wrote a letter to Secretary of State Hilary Clinton pushing for $3 billion to be included in the 2011. Both figures depend on the Senate passing climate legislation. At the same time, the EU is trying to scrape together $10 billion in funding from the 2010-2012 period, although there is concern right now over whether it’s new money, or international assistance dollars being redirected. Continue reading

Cash for Caulkers should use Energy Efficiency Loan Fund Model

Back in September, I wrote about the the power of energy efficiency loan funds, and how they could be utilized by local and state governments to eliminate the barrier of upfront financing for energy efficiency improvements which often prevents them from happening. When my student group UMD for Clean Energy was involved in our local city council elections this past fall, the priority policy of our platform was a low-interest energy efficiency loan fund. We managed to elevate this to being an important issue in the elections, and our city council has made it a priority to push for tweaking a state law that would allow municipalities in Maryland to undertake this kind of a program.

Last week, President Obama announced that as part of his new jobs bill, a cash for caulkers program that puts people back to work by weatherizing houses, will be a key part of the legislation. However, as Dave Roberts notes a Grist, right now “public statements from the administration have focused almost entirely on cash rebates, which would pay back homeowners up to half the cost of various retrofit investments. There’s a way to get far more bang for federal bucks, though, and it has to do with financing” Continue reading

The Scientists Strike Back

There has been quite an assault on the climate science in the past few weeks. Far more so than ever before, which is saying something given the Climate Cover-Up that’s gone on for so long. First, e-mails were hacked from a British university, showing some cherry-picked conversations between climate scientists, which global warming deniers have stretched and chalked up to data misrepresentation, and a massive global scientific conspiracy to trick people into reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Continue reading

Responding Rapidly to Copenhagen

Students are getting involved with climate negotiations in Copenhagen from here in the States! Hundreds have joined the nation-wide Rapid Response Team organized by the Energy Action Coalition: providing a way for the youth delegation in Copenhagen to keep in contact with state-side youth activists.

The latest action was in response to a request by Tuvalu, a small island nation in the Pacific Ocean, for an open conversation about a legally binding deal and a return to 350ppm carbon in the atmosphere. Despite the request only being for the start of a conversation, several larger countries blocked the idea. So the youth delegation in Copenhagen is calling for us to stand with Tuvalu!

Thalia Patrinos from Walter Johnson High School received a call and responded! A group of Walter Johnson students ate cookies, recruited friends, and called President Obama during lunch. They asked him to protect the future of small island nations and the future of all generations by playing a lead role in a legally binding, scientific based deal that limits carbon pollution to 350 ppm! Go Walter Johnson! Want to join the team? Go to powershift09.org/rapidresponse

MD Students…at the White House!

This post was written by Caroline Selle, a student at St Mary’s College of Maryland and an active member of the Maryland Student Climate Coalition.

Hey everyone! I was lucky enough yesterday to be one of the youth invited to the White House for the Clean Energy Economy Forum. It was a great opportunity for those of us involved in the environmental movement to hear from the Obama administration and also to make ourselves heard. The 100 plus members of the audience included youth from all over the country, representing small and large environmental organizations and non-profits. We came from a variety of backgrounds, but we were all together to ask Obama and his administration to take charge on environmental issues.

The forum was broken up into two parts. First, a panel made up of three Cabinet members (Secretary of the Interior Kenneth Salazar, Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis and Secretary of Energy Steven Chu) and EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson answered questions from the audience. There were some great, encouraging answers from the panel and some very political ones, but overall we ended with a lot of clear answers on a wide range of issues. Topics ranged from mountaintop removal (the EPA is looking at Clean Water Act violations, a good sign) to creating green jobs that won’t just provide a temporary salary but a true career path so that a stable clean, green economy will eventually be created.
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To really save the planet, stop going green

Here’s some food for thought: Like civil rights, we need statutes not gestures. And all domestic statutes and international talks should aim for one unmovable number: 350 ppm carbon in the atmosphere. It’s the only number that matters.

As President Obama heads to Copenhagen next week for global warming talks, there’s one simple step Americans back home can take to help out: Stop “going green.” Just stop it. No more compact fluorescent light bulbs. No more green wedding planning. No more organic toothpicks for holiday hors d’oeuvres.

December should be national Green-Free Month. Instead of continuing our faddish and counterproductive emphasis on small, voluntary actions, we should follow the example of Americans during past moral crises and work toward large-scale change. The country’s last real moral and social revolution was set in motion by the civil rights movement. And in the 1960s, civil rights activists didn’t ask bigoted Southern governors and sheriffs to consider “10 Ways to Go Integrated” at their convenience.

Green gestures we have in abundance in America. Green political action, not so much. And the gestures (“Look honey, another Vanity Fair Green Issue!”) lure us into believing that broad change is happening when the data shows that it isn’t. Despite all our talk about washing clothes in cold water, we aren’t making much of a difference.

For eight years, George W. Bush promoted voluntary action as the nation’s primary response to global warming — and for eight years, aggregate greenhouse gas emissions remained unchanged. Even today, only 10 percent of our household light bulbs are compact fluorescents. Hybrids account for only 2.5 percent of U.S. auto sales. One can almost imagine the big energy companies secretly applauding each time we distract ourselves from the big picture with a hectoring list of “5 Easy Ways to Green Your Office.” Continue reading