Climate Change

See my colleague Cassandra Clifford’s recent two articles on Children and Climate Change.  These, along with the rest of her material, are hard hitting. Start here. 

I talked about the depth and the intensity of the activity on renewable energy these days in my post from April 5. Here are some notes from recent news stories and elsewhere that highlight this theme.

PepsiCo – “PepsiCo makes big renewable energy buy” reads the headline from BusinessWeek. “The company’s three-year purchase is made up of more than 1 billion kilowatt hours annually,” says their story. See also this press release from the company. This is being done in concert with the U.S. EPA’s Green Power Partnership. Great stuff.

Lasers for Fusion – Here’s an update from “The Economist” on the state of research into laser-triggered nuclear fusion. This stuff is not in our immediate future, but it’s important to know about developments and the potential. (You can always go to their coverage of environmental issues. Some articles require a subscription, some don’t.) 

Hydrogen for Vehicles – The Sunday automotive section of the “NY Times” often has some interesting material. Here’s a link to this week’s issue in which they devote all their articles to hydrogen fuel vehicles. For greater depth on this, go to the U.S. DOE’s article on hydrogen vehicles.

Solar Power on NOVA – This top-of-the-line PBS science and technology program recently aired a terrific survey of the latest in solar energy, Saved by The Sun. Their website has a wealth of useful information, including a look at six new advanced technologies, a Teacher’s Guide and where to buy the video.

Germany’s New Energy Efficiency Initiative – In this story from Agence France-Presse (via WBCSD Energy & Climate News), we learn that “Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel called for additional investment of three billion euros (four billion dollars) to develop energy-saving technologies …”  You can go to the English-language website of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety to get information on their programs on climate and energy. 

I talked about the carbon market, and others, in the post from April 19 aptly named … Markets.  There’s a pretty big event coming up next week in Cologne:  Carbon Expo. This is billed as a “Global Carbon Market Fair and Conference.”  It runs from May 2 to 4.  One of the keynote speakers is the EU Environment Minister, Stavros Dimas. (See the cool picture.) 

The other keynote speaker is Yvo de Boer, the Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC. They are billing more than 140 Speakers in 8 Plenary Sessions and 22 Workshops, divided into 3 streams – “Project,” Traders,” and “Global” – and over 35 Exhibitor Side Events.  Here’s the conference program.  This is going to be a really comprehensive, interesting, stimulating important event.  As I have indicated in several posts along the way here, we are in a whole new ball game. Frankly, I have seen the future and it works.   

Here’s something useful from the expo website:  a glossary of carbon finance terms. (See also the Conservation Finance Guide, a joint project of the Conservation Finance Alliance.) 

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Let’s also quickly look back here at another big event that’s just passed:  “B4E, the Global Business Summit for the Environment.”  This took place April 19-20 in Singapore and was sponsored by UNEP,  the UN Global Compact, and Carbonfund.org. The website for the conference says:  “Fortunately, there is an increasing number of companies around the world that are facing the realities of this crisis and are leading the way by embracing environmental responsibility.”

When this sort of gathering happens, and when corporate bigwigs like the CEOs of Dupont and PG&E, and the Vice Chair of BP America come to the Senate to testify on behalf of a cap-and-trade system for GHG emissions, and an organization like the U.S. Climate Action Partnership is out in front on creating legislation, then we are seeing a paradigm shift. 

“O brave new world
That has such people in’t!”

Not having seen this program, I am making no judgements.  However, I have found Frontline to be consistently informative and to the highest journalistic standards.

Mike Bloomberg is a billionaire (see Forbes) and the mayor of the biggest city in the United States. He’s in his second term of office – NYC has a term limit of two for municipal office – and he’s come out with a very bold, far-reaching plan, PLANYC, for “A Greener, Greater New York.” He unveiled the plan on Earth Day at the American Museum of Natural History. “With historically low unemployment, a low crime rate and better schools, New York is thriving – it’s a place that people want to be. The time to build on our success is now, and I will not spend my last 984 days in office ignoring the problems that this City will face in the future,” said Hizzoner. (You can watch a video by going here.) 

Bloomberg’s plan is ambitious and, from my perspective, absolutely fabulous. It’s also unprecedented in my experience to have a New York City mayor really embrace so many of the ideas that urban environmentalists have been championing for years:  street trees, expanded open space, an emphasis on renewable fuels, energy efficiency and green buildings, distributed generation, mass transportation, brownfield remediation, protecting ambient water and expanding recreational opportunities. So many of New York City’s environmental mandates are dictated by federal and state law. Mayors haven’t been able to skirt these. But they’ve often stinted of their concern. Giuliani wanted to liquidate most of the community gardens and had nothing but contempt for recycling. I was at an American Planning Association convention one year listening to someone from Chicago talk about Richard Daley’s commitment to street trees and urban parks and I just was squirming thinking of my own city. I also remember being in a meeting in 1986 with one of Ed Koch’s deputy mayors. A group of us were discussing a state bond proposal to increase spending for open space acquisition. “We don’t want new parkland, even if the bond act will pay for it,” the deputy mayor told us. “We’d have to spend money on upkeep if we did.”  I wrote a magazine article for the twentieth anniversary of Earth Day in 1990 which, in essay form, was later published by the American Planning Association. “The City Is Built To Music” is a sort of urban environmental utopia. I always thought that the Big Apple’s politicians could never really think this way. Mike’s making a monkey out of me, and I love it.

Here’s one big-ticket item:  plant a million trees!  Sweet. “Beyond aesthetics and emotional well-being, trees perform important functions that protect and enhance city dwellers’ health and property. Trees literally clean the air by absorbing air pollutants and releasing oxygen. They reduce stormwater runoff and erosion; they temper climate; they can save energy; they create wildlife habitat; they can improve health, serve as screens, and strengthen community. They can even help contribute to a community’s economy and way of life.”  The USDA has a wealth of information on the benefits of the urban forest.

Another initiative in the plan is congestion pricing. I mentioned this in my post immediately below, under the heading How Green is Your City?  The pushback is already coming on strong. See this from “Crain’s NY Business.”  But you’ve got to see the congestion pricing also in the context of the overall transportation plan. We are supposed to get better mass transit at the same time.  Not incidentally, the NY metropolitan area already has, by far, the most extensive and widely used mass transit system in the country. See this from the US DOT. Anyway, London’s congestion pricing system works!  It can and should in the Big Apple. (For critics of congestion pricing as an “elitist” measure, consider London Mayor Ken Livingstone’s politics. They don’t call him Red Ken for nothing.)

So here’s the part that’s most germane for this little sector of the blogosphere:  the plan has a significant component on climate change. Fun fact:  The sheer scale of our city means that New York emits nearly 60 million metric tons of carbon dioxide annually, slightly more than Switzerland and Norway and slightly less than Ireland. We’re looking now for a 30% reduction from the 2005 baseline by 2030. The idea is to get reductions of 33.6 million tons - 10.8 million tons coming from “clean power,” 16.7 million from “efficient buildings,” 6.1 from “sustainable transportation,” plus an additional 15.6 million avoided by accommodating 900,000 people in New York City or “avoided sprawl” as the Plan terms it. Plus, the City will devise a comprehensive plan for dealing with weather impacts that are likely to come no matter how negatively or positively global warming trends. This is all heady stuff.  

Bloomberg and New York City are hosting the “C40 Large Cities Climate Summit” next month. “Cities are responsible for three-quarters of the world’s energy consumption, and as such, the world’s largest cities have a critical role to play in the reduction of carbon emissions and the reversal of dangerous climate change,” says their website.

I’ll let the Mayor get the last word in here. He’s earned it, for my money, with this plan. “Climate change is a national challenge, and meeting it requires strong and united national leadership. The fact is, the emerging consensus among scientists is that, to avoid serious harm, we must reduce our emissions by 60 to 80 percent by 2050.”

There were a number of developments this past week worth noting. Here’s a rundown:

U.N. Security Council - On Tuesday, Britain, holding the rotating presidency of the Security Council, brought the issue of climate change forward. (See this from “The International Herald Tribune” and this from the BBC.) The U.K.’s Foreign Secretary, Margaret Beckett, for five years her country’s lead climate change negotiator, said: “There are few greater potential threats to our economies, too, but also to peace and security itself.” (See the Stern Report for further background on her reference to the world’s economies.) Beckett gave a speech the night before to the Foreign Policy Association and its partners titled “Climate Change - The Gathering Storm.” She concluded by saying: “Now it is time for us to rise to our newest and biggest challenge: to fight the first great war of interdependence, the struggle for climate security.”

At the Security Council on Tuesday, there was a considerable push back by developing nations. China’s delegate didn’t quite see it the way that Beckett did. Ambassador Liu Zhenmin asserted, “Developing countries believe that neither has the Security Council the professional competence, nor is it the right decision making place for extensive participation leading up to widely acceptable proposals.” The “Times of India” reported:  “Indian ambassador to the UN Nirupam Sen rubbished the idea that climate change presented any kind of imminent security issue that the Security Council should deal with.” Ouch.

UNSG Ban Ki-Moon playing conciliator, as is appropriate, had this to say:  “We must focus more clearly on the benefits of early action. The resources of civil society and the private sector must be brought in. And this Council has a role to play in working with other competent intergovernmental bodies to address the possible root causes of conflict discussed today.”

For some more perspectives from journalists from China, Brazil, India, Indonesia and elsewhere, go to PostGlobal.

U.S. Security Concerns – Last Monday, the non-profit CNA Corporation, issued a report called “National Security and the Threat of Climate Change.” The report was prepared by some serious former American military top brass. The website says:  “Global climate change presents a serious national security threat which could impact Americans at home, impact United States military operations and heighten global tensions …” That’s unequivocal. General Gordon Sullivan, Chairman of CNAC’s Military Advisory Board, followed up with a release applauding the Security Council’s activity on the subject (see item above) and then testified before the “Select Committee On Energy Independence And Global Warming” in the House Of Representatives. (Their website is pending.) He testified:  “After listening to leaders of the scientific, business, and governmental communities both I and my colleagues came to agree that Global Climate Change is and will be a significant threat to our National Security and in a larger sense to life on earth as we know it to be.” One more radical leftist tree hugger on record. (See my post “If You Don’t Like Al Gore, Then …)  A “NY Times” editorial from yesterday included this zinger:  “In an alliance of denial, China and the United States are using each other’s inaction as an excuse to do nothing.” 

IPCC – On North American Climate – As a follow-up to the IPCC report from April 6 – see my post “Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability” – regional briefings have been given all over the world. The one for North America was given in Washington on Monday. See this coverage from “ABC News” for example – “Global Warming May Put U.S. in Hot Water.” Another news organization, McClatchy Newspapers, reported here:  “More droughts, floods, heat waves, infectious diseases and extinctions are possible for two of the most prosperous countries on the planet …” One of the lead authors, Michael Oppenheimer, put it this way:  “Water at large is the central (global warming) problem for the U.S.” (The North American section of the report has not yet been posted at the IPCC website but should appear here when it does, soon one presumes.)  Another of the lead authors, Cynthia Rosenzweig, talked to WNYC radio last week:  “Ground Water: Climate Change Could Flood Subways.” This sort of flooding, not incidentally, was the theme of the event I attended last Saturday, the Sea of People – part of the national Step It Up campaign. (See my post on it below.)

How Green is Your City? – This is a new book from SustainLane, “the first internet and media company dedicated to empowering consumers, businesses and government to go green.” Their 2006 US City Sustainability rankings are contained in a new book. You can find a great teaser for the book here. #1 sustainable city?  Portland, Oregon. No surprise there.

How’d my home town, New York City perform? #6 on the list! Mayor Bloomberg is going to have a big speech for tomorrow, Earth Day, on how we are going forward in all this. One of the newsiest components for his speech is on his embrace of congestion pricing. London’s certainly had great success. You go, Mike!  (I’ve been saying this for years and years, before the term congestion pricing was even coined.)

The new Governor of New York State, Eliot Spitzer, put out his comprehensive plan for energy and the environment, on April 19. The reviews from environmentalists were enthusiastic. NRDC energy expert Ashok Gupta said: “Governor Spitzer’s commitment to energy efficiency will make New York the benchmark against which all other states will be measured.” 

Media Notes

• “The Nation” devotes much of its issue of May 7 to “Surviving the Climate Crisis – What Must Be Done.”
• “Newsweek” and “MSNBC.com” have devoted a huge amount of coverage recently to climate change. See their website “Learning to Live with Global Warming” which has a great body of useful material.
• “NY Times” foreign affairs columnist, Thomas Friedman, made a big splash this week with a cover story in their magazine:  “The Power of Green.” There’s more:  a Discovery Channel series on energy with Friedman starting tonight:  “Green: The New, Red, White and Blue.” Here’s some commentary on Friedman’s magazine article from Harvey Wasserman at the Huff Po.
• Finally, “The Weather Channel Unveils Number One Weather Moment: Global Warming.” See the video. 

Not Incidentally, Comments -  Dear Reader, you are cordially invited to make comment at this website on this or any of the posts. One of the principal reasons the Foreign Policy Association has created this blog and its seven sister blogs is to provide not only some ongoing information on the subject at hand but also to engage you in a dialogue. We really do want to hear what you have to say. Feel free.

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* “That Was The Week That Was” or TW3 as it was more affectionately known, was a British television satire from the early 1960’s, with an American spin-off a little later.  

I went to a hugely informative event yesterday. It focused on the “carbon markets” and was organized by the non-profit Ecosystem Marketplace. The symposium was also geared as a promotional event for their new book:  Voluntary Carbon Markets: A Business Guide to What They Are and How They Work.  What’s a carbon market you ask? Well, that’s a good question. There are quite a few dimensions to this area. “In addition to setting emission limits, the Kyoto Protocol provides several market-based mechanisms to enable GHG emitters to achieve their assigned reductions. The basic idea, trading emission rights, has been successfully implemented for other pollutants in many countries. Under this system, because some countries will be able to reduce emissions more easily and cheaply than other countries (for example through forest-based carbon offset projects), they can sell their surplus reductions (or carbon credits) to countries that emit more than their limit. This will enable achieving the overall global emissions target at the least cost. Carbon projects can therefore generate financing for conservation by selling certified carbon credits to GHG emitters.” (This is from the Conservation Finance Guide, a joint project of the Conservation Finance Alliance). Credits from Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects are a particularly hot ticket these days according to one of the experts from the symposium who works for Evolution Markets. (See my reference to CDMs under “IPCC Report” below in Headlines.) 

A series of events took place yesterday all over the United States to indicate people’s concern about climate change. The Step It Up website said: “In all 50 states, at more than 1400 iconic places across the nation, we have united around a common call to action: ‘Step It Up Congress: Cut Carbon 80% by 2050.’” Bill McKibben, a writer whose The End of Nature was the first popular book written on global warming, was the leading light of Step It Up. Here’s coverage of the events and an interview with McKibben from “Democracy Now.”

In New York City, there were a number of events, including the Sea of People in Battery Park. I was there and had a fine time. McKibben was one of the speakers. 

There were a good number of other speakers including one of our leading urban environmentalists, Eric Goldstein from the Natural Resources Defense Council. I also talked to Charles Komanoff at the rally. Charles is one of the founders of the Carbon Tax Center and an energy economist who’s been around for a long time. He has been one of the leading analysts of the financial issues around nuclear power. (See this report from Greenpeace for instance.)

As I indicated, a good time was had by all, including by this polar bear and my daughter, Diana. 

… what about these people?

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) from a speech yesterday at the Council on Foreign Relations – “I can tell you, mainstream scientists are convinced, mainstream CEOs are convinced, and if you look at the surveys, mainstream Americans are convinced, that global warming and climate change is real, and that we have to do something about it.”  Also, from this week, a “Newsweek” special section on Leadership & the Environment: Green Issues:  “For the record, Schwarzenegger says he’s deeply impressed with Gore’s work: he even popped into a Beverly Hills book-signing not long ago with his teenage daughter to tell the former vice president so in person.”