Copenhagen Update

Here’s another one of those timely updates from the Climate Action Network about today’s happenings in Copenhagen

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.

Contrast this with the recommendation from the World Bank:

“Estimates of how much money developing countries will need range from $140 billion to $675 billion each year for mitigation and $30 billion to $90 billion each year for adaptation”

The numbers being offered up also contrast with what the EU said in November, that at least $150 billion dollars a year by 2020 is necessary for developing countries to combat climate change.

Clearly, developed countries are falling far short on what could even be considering a reasonable financing proposal for a reasonable treaty.  I know in the US, we can do far better than $1.2 billion.  Here’s a few important things to remember about why financing is so important, and in our interest.

1. It is the Right Choice, the Smart Choice. International climate investments secure economic progress and protect US development investment.

• Poor countries are being increasingly hard-hit by impacts from storms to droughts.  We need to invest in their ability to weather those impacts to prevent growing poverty and economic destabilization.
• Faith communities across the U.S. have made this their top priority for climate legislation, bringing large numbers of constituents to the climate debate.
• Investing in adaptation efforts will not only save lives but it is also a smart investment. For every dollar we invest now on international adaptation will save us $7 down the road in disaster and conflict prevention.

2  Climate investments help global efforts to reduce emissions.

• Developing countries have taken significant steps in putting forward plans for actions to reduce emissions.  Meanwhile, the negotiations are making progress on key issues such as reducing deforestation that causes climate change. We need to make sure we don’t lose those gains and work with these countries to move the ball forward.
• Climate change is a global problem that requires a global solution.  We need to invest in a global green economy in order to get the job done.

3    It’s the smart thing to do for the economy.

• Climate change is affecting the global supply chains of leading American businesses (from coffee supplies to cotton).
• Large-scale investment strategies will allow U.S companies and workers to be at the vanguard of developing and supplying climate technologies for a global marketplace – from clean energy to water technologies.
• Investors are are looking for long-term certainty about the public financing landscape.

4   US national security depends on human security abroad.

• Without a change in course, climate impacts such as water scarcity will increase instability in some of the most volatile regions of the world.  International climate investments are essential to avoid the destabilizing effects of climate change and safeguard global security.
• When we help the world’s most vulnerable communities build resilience though climate financing, we are also investing in long-term stability and security—making our country and the world safer today and for generations to come.

I want to hit especially on the last point.  Over the past six decades 40 percent of international conflicts have been linked to fighting over natural resources, and climate-related stresses such a water shortages and floods, have contributed to conflicts already taking place in Sudan and Somalia.  One study conducted by a panel of retired US generals and admirals, found that climate change could increase the risk of violent conflict in 46 countries—and named climate change a ―serious threat multiplier for instability in some of the most volatile regions of the world.

Given the worldwide recession, the difficulty in finding money would be understandable if we weren’t already squandering it on subsidizing fossil fuels.  A recent report by the Environmental Law Institute found that from 2002-2008, the US gave $72 billion dollars in subsidies to fossil fuels, and another 16.8 billion dollars to corn-based ethanol.

Back in September, President Obama and other G20 leaders agreed to phase out fossil fuel subsidies over the medium term.  An acceleration could help provide a financing source that has been lacking, and also help countries reduce emissions.  I know at least in the US, eliminating the tax breaks that the Bush Administration gave to big oil should be a political breeze, our Congress was almost able to do it when Bush was still our President.

Developed countries need to show they’re serious about climate change, and phasing out fossil fuel subsidies while providing financing to developing countries is a win-win that could propel the negotiations in the right direction.

Read more on financing options from Billy Parish

University System of Maryland Approves 4 Large-Scale Renewable Energy Projects

This is a great step for the University of Maryland, and the USM system as a whole.  Hats off to them for taking significant steps to make good on their commitment to carbon neutrality by 2050, and their interim commitments under their climate action plans.  The system’s press release is below.

USM Board of Regents Approves Award of Four Large-Scale Renewable Energy Projects

University of Maryland, College Park Provides Procurement Leadership in State-USM Partnership to Reduce Maryland’s Carbon Footprint

Adelphi, MD (Dec. 8, 2009) — The University System of Maryland (USM) Board of Regents has approved the award of four renewable energy projects that will produce more than 20 percent of the annual electric needs for USM institutions and state agencies. The contracts will also advance the state’s commitment to reducing its carbon footprint by 25 percent by 2020 and the USM’s commitment to carbon neutrality under the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment.

With procurement leadership from officials at the University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP), the four projects recommended for award to regional energy providers include a 13 megawatt (MW) solar project at Mount St. Mary’s University (Constellation Energy), a 10 MW wind project in western Maryland (Synergics), a 55 MW project in West Virginia (US Wind Force) and up to 55 MW of offshore wind (Bluewater Wind). The regents approved the recommendation at their meeting on Dec. 4, 2009.

It is expected that USM institutions will contract for approximately 100,000 MWh of annual energy, representing 20% of the Systems electrical consumption equivalent to the electric use of more than 10,000 households.

“This is a significant step under the University System of Maryland’s Environmental Sustainability Initiative, reflecting our commitment to carbon reduction through a 20-year agreement for the purchase of renewable energy,” said USM Chancellor William E. Kirwan.

The recommendations for awards come after a 10-month solicitation process under the Generating Clean Horizons request for proposals (RFP), administered by UMCP. UMCP provided the procurement and technical lead for the effort, working with the state’s Department of General Services and the Maryland Energy Administration (MEA).

“The University of Maryland is very happy to have contributed to this commitment to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions.  It is one big step among many to come toward our goal of carbon neutrality by 2050,” said University of Maryland, College Park President  C. D. Mote, Jr. “Higher education must continue to lead initiatives countering the green-house gas driver of climate change.”

Provisions in the contracts will allow other state agencies and higher education institutions, counties and municipalities to participate in the long-term purchase of renewable energy.

“This demonstrates the seriousness of Maryland’s commitment to embrace clean energy from multiple technology sources,” said MEA Director Malcolm Woolf. “We have leveraged the state’s own electricity needs with clean energy developers’ desire for long term contracts that will help deployment in this credit-strapped economic climate. The tremendous level of interest from public and private entities demonstrates that Marylanders can and will remain the leading state for greener solutions with predictable pricing to meet out energy challenges.”

Final power purchase agreements are expected to be executed during the next several weeks, with initial delivery of energy under the agreements beginning in late 2010 or early 2011.

“To the best of our knowledge, this partnership represents the first time that an aggregation of state universities and agencies has contracted for the long-term power purchase of renewable energy outside of the state-regulated electric utilities.  The deregulation of the electric supply markets in Maryland has allowed us to take advantage of procuring our future electric supply from our preference of energy projects,” said Joan Kowal, Energy Manager at UMCP and chair of the RFP review committee. “We now have direct control over how quickly we can reduce our carbon footprint.”

Copenhagen Updates

This is a cross-post from “The Mulch, which offers bloggers free daily updates on Copenhagen, kudos to them.

By Alison Hamm, Media Consortium Blogger

On Saturday, December 12, climate activists rallied to call for a binding climate agreement. Vigils, fasts, and protests were held around the world, and in the largest environmental demonstration in history, 100,000 activists marched in downtown Copenhagen from the Christiansborg Palace to the Bella Center, where the United Nations Climate Change Conference (Cop15) is being held.

Overall, the march was peaceful and positive, ending with a vigil outside the Bella Center, where the demonstrators were greeted by South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu. However, Danish police detained more than 500 activists at the back of the line, where European “black bloc” anarchists were trying to infiltrate, as Jacob Wheeler and Chuck Olsen report for The UpTake.

Kumi Naidoo, the first African leader of Greenpeace, is optimistic and enthusiastic about a deal in Copenhagen—and the role activists will play in making it happen. In an interview with Madeline Ostrander for Yes! Magazine, Naidoo says that the “… summit itself would not be taking place had it not been for groups like Greenpeace and others who have fought for a very, very long time. The fact that we are here is in itself an expression of innovation, courage, and willingness to speak truth to power.”

According to Naidoo, activists are putting pressure on leaders by working both inside and outside the negotiations, and “delegations are reaching out to us as they try to figure out what’s happening. Sometimes we civil society folks get to know what these countries are doing and thinking before some of the other negotiators do.” Without the “sweat of activist groups,” Naidoo says, Copenhagen wouldn’t even be happening.

OneClimate posted a video overview (below) of demonstrators’ work at the Cop15 climate march on Saturday. “People are not in Copenhagen to bury the climate treaty, ” said Vandana Shiva, Director of Navdanya, a women-centered movement for the protection of biological and cultural diversity. “They are here to implement it! Let this be the time where, you, marching to the Cop15, tell the leaders, ‘We have the power… we will be the change we want to see, and no one is going to stop us.’”

In other news, Tuvalu and other small island nations introduced a proposal that would commit the world’s developed nations to reducing greenhouse gas emissions enough to keep their islands habitable. They want Cop15 to produce two binding agreements: One to extend the Kyoto Protocol and make it stricter, and another that would require the United States to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.

Tuvalu’s lead negotiator, Ian Fry, made an impassioned plea to the U.S. Senate, President Barack Obama, and the entire UN climate conference Saturday, telling them that his country’s very survival depends on the decisions they make in the next week, as Jeffrey Allen reports for OneWorld. Fry’s speech brought other nations’ officials to tears.

“The fate of my country rests in your hands,” Fry told the other delegates.

This weekend’s action helped set the stage for an exciting second week in Copenhagen, as Geoffrey Lean writes for Grist. “If the conference is successful, then the more than 100 world leaders due to come to the Danish capital this week will initiate the biggest economic change since the Industrial Revolution.”

There are still arguments over the details of any final deal, such as how the measures to cut greenhouse gas emissions will be monitored and verified, who will fund it, and how to retain and improve the Kyoto Protocol.

“The likeliest outcome is a toughened Kyoto Protocol, with a linked treaty covering the United States and developing countries (at present excluded from its provisions) and new agreements made in Copenhagen,” Lean writes. “… It will be one big package, or nothing. And it may all come down to the last few hours of the last day—or night, since no one wants to move until the last minute. The outcome of the Copenhagen talks is going to be a cliffhanger.”

This post features links to the best independent, progressive reporting about the environment by members of The Media Consortium. It is free to reprint. Visit the Mulch for a complete list of articles on environmental issues, or follow us on Twitter. And for the best progressive reporting on critical economy, health care and immigration issues, check out The Audit, The Pulse, and The Diaspora. This is a project of The Media Consortium, a network of leading independent media outlets.

The Wooded Hillock: Our Tipping Point

My last column of the semester is out today, and it’s about why environmental protection is important for protecting communities, and the prospects for saving part of a forest known as The Wooded Hillock, which the university wants to bulldoze so it can relocate facilities onto it.  This is my second column on the issue, I had one out back in February.  If you want to learn more about the issues surrounding the Wooded Hillock, please see here, and scroll down, or go to www.savethehillock.com.

Wooded Hillock: Our tipping point

A couple of months ago, I heard a speech from Adam Ortiz, the mayor of a town a few miles south of here called Edmonston. As Ortiz jokingly put it, Edmonston is a diverse town in every way, except there are no rich people.

Ortiz talked about how Edmonston had been hit with flooding for years, including a 2006 flood in which homes were left partially submerged and people lost everything. Ortiz said this flooding occurred not because Edmonston is located near the Anacostia River but because of its parking lots, shopping centers, highways and roofs. Edmonston flooded because of irresponsible development decisions made upstream that destroyed the natural environment and caused storm water runoff to be redirected rather than absorbed. It settled in Edmonston.

Typically, when there are disputes over developments between environmental groups and developers, the ecosystem advocates are trying to protect is seen as having aesthetic value. The argument is framed as, “We should protect it because we want to be able to enjoy it and know it’s there.” What is severely missing from the conversation, and what Ortiz’s experience exemplifies is that environmental protection is actually about protecting communities. Even if we can’t see it, someone always pays for the destruction, often disproportionately those who lack a political voice.

Fortunately, Ortiz and his community were able to get Prince George’s County to build them pumping stations to mitigate the impact of flooding. When environmentalists talk about tipping points, they refer to a problem getting so bad there’s no way to solve it. Another kind of tipping point is when an issue gets so bad it begins to impact people, and the resulting awareness builds until the politics of the issue suddenly shift in favor of one side to the other.

The dispute about the Wooded Hillock, a forest the university proposed bulldozing so it could relocate facilities there to make way for the East Campus development, is a sign a tipping point is nearing on how we make development decisions. In just the past year since the motion to destroy the hillock was made public, students, faculty, media and local College Park politicians have spoken out against this decision and pushed for an alternative. What once would have been socially acceptable is now socially horrifying.

Now, despite the developer backing out of East Campus, the university says it plans to relocate its facilities to as early as January. I don’t think they can afford to do it. If the university wants East Campus, they need the City Council to approve $5 million in relocation money from the state for the facilities, the Prince George’s County Council to approve the development and our state legislators to fight for more state assistance for the project. Based on conversations I’ve had with all three, that’s a trifecta from hell if the trees go.

Edmonston found its voice. Hillock advocates have echoed the lesson from that story. They’re still having trouble breaching through the thick walls of the administration building. But keep up the volume — the tipping point where that threshold is crossed is right around the corner. When next semester starts, the hillock will stand.

Matt Dernoga is a senior government and politics major. He can be reached at dernoga at umdbk dot com.

Diamondback Article Recognizes Green Activists Collaboration

In a look back on the semester, the Diamondback’s Dana Cetrone has an article out about how green groups on campus have worked together this semester to achieve common goals.  She mentions my group, UMD for Clean Energy, there’s a picture of our big march to the polls,  and I even got quoted on Copenhagen at the end, which is good.

A (green) team effort

By Dana Cetrone

Whether rallying for alternative energy, fighting to save a nearby forest or mobilizing students to vote in city elections, university environmental groups have been able to rely on one thing this semester: each other.

Working on local, national and international levels, university activist groups have relied on networking with on- and off- campus groups to advocate their causes and achieve their goals.

“I think it’s good to work with other groups where you have common ground,” said UMD for Clean Energy’s campaign coordinator Matt Dernoga, a Diamondback columnist. “When issues intersect, it’s always good to combine resources and people to try and get things done.”

This semester, UMD for Clean Energy focused its efforts toward lobbying the College Park City Council to adopt an Energy Loan Fund that would lend money to residents who make sustainable upgrades in their homes. The campaign, which culminated with an 80-student rally in front of City Hall, was successful, Dernoga said, despite having only a few months to educate students on the issue.

But Dernoga said the challenge was made easier by working with other groups with an on-campus presence, such as MaryPIRG.

“It’s always easier to work with others: There are more resources, and you’re reaching out to more people,” said Brian Lentz, the global warming solutions coordinator for MaryPIRG.
Other groups teamed with more established national organizations to gather additional resources. VegTerps, an animal rights group for vegetarians and vegans, teamed with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals in its McCruelty campaign aimed at ousting McDonald’s from the Stamp Student Union.

“I definitely think working with PETA and peta2 helped us out tremendously,” VegTerps President Michelle Carr said. “Before no one knew who we were or about the campaign. It was good to have a mother organization to look after us, and they really helped us out by providing literature, stickers and materials.”

Although the campaign has yet to banish the fast-food giant, Carr’s efforts earned her a spot on the Stamp Student Advisory Board. Carr said she believes the campaign was successful because it made students aware of McDonald’s slaughter practices.

“I hope our campaign makes people realize that people have the power and by doing protests and rallies that power is with the students and that they have power to change the campus,” Carr said.

Joanna Calabrese, chair of the Student Sustainability Committee, said she sought a similar university-wide change with her campaign to save the Wooded Hillock from destruction.

The university had sought to bulldoze this 22.4 acre forest to make way for relocated East Campus buildings. But the University Senate last week voted to save the hillock, a victory for students and faculty activists, who Calabrese said worked with students to create a petition to send the senate.

“It’s a major turning point for us and our advocacy,” Calabrese said.  “Mote has only gone against the senate once, and I think there’s evidence there’s been a lot of pressure, and not by just students but environmental activists and local officials.”

Activists hope the cooperation that has occurred at the university this semester will carry over to the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, where many of the groups sent petitions with national officials to the conference.

“We want there to be a strong climate treaty that can be reached,” Dernoga said. “What we advocate for is to have countries together commit to the strongest targets possible.”

cetrone at umdbk dot com

Mikhail Gorbachev: “We Have a Real Emergency”

Mikhail Gorbachev, the former president of the Soviet Union, penned a recent Op-Ed in the New York Times about the need for world leaders to step up and commit their governments to action on climate change.  I want to link to it since it’s very well articulated.  Below are some noteworthy excerpts

“As the climate change summit meeting moves forward in Copenhagen, it is increasingly clear that more than just the environment is at stake. The global environmental crisis is at the heart of practically all the problems now confronting us, including the need to create a global economic model grounded in the public good.”

“Excuses and pretexts for not taking action on the environment, and assertions that there are more important problems, are simply no longer credible. If we fail on this problem, we’ll fail on all the others.”

“The latest scientific research on climate change is extremely disturbing. We have a real emergency. Yet the gap between science and policy keeps widening, as does the gap between the negotiations and the urgency of the issue.”

“Yet policy compromises agreed to by negotiators involved in the Copenhagen talks virtually guarantee a temperature increase of around 4 degrees Celsius — well into the catastrophic risk range.”

“We also need a moral realignment of the business community. Companies and their C.E.O.s tend to define their positions on environmental issues according to the short-term or at best medium-term bottom line. Socially and environmentally responsible business is still the exception rather than the rule. Change is needed in the entire system of taxes, subsidies and incentives.”

“In Copenhagen, we will closely watch the political leaders. More than 60 heads of state will take a personal leadership test there. We have seen how easy it would be to fail. The weeks and months ahead offer them a chance to show that they can truly lead.”