Joint Venture Climate liftoff

Before it begins to discuss ways of tackling the bigger issues, the group plans to conduct an inventory of each city's carbon emissions and the region as a whole. That will be the main topic of discussion at the group's July 12 meeting.

The most strategic pieces of the climate solutions will require regional cooperation - land-use, transportation, etc. - so it's good this is getting off the ground.

However, as one city manager recently commented, every organization wants to be a player CCAG, SSV, Joint Venture, and others, so it's a bit difficult to know what forum will emerge as the "center of gravity." But for now, it's key to get started and this will shake out.

More at the Daily News

Solar: better, faster, cheaper

Despite the million solar roofs initiative of the Governator solar panels remain an expensive proposition given the up-front costs. One of the big issues is lack of production supply for polysilicon. But that appears to be on the verge of a huge change - especially due to China.

"To say that Chinese PV producers plan to expand production rapidly in the year ahead would be an understatement. They have raised billions from international IPOs to build capacity and increase scale with the goal of driving down costs. Four Chinese IPOs are expected to come to market this month alone."

According to this Worldwatch study prices could drop 40%. If those savings translate directly into the market once we factor in installation, inverters, etc. that could be enough to bring the payback period under 10 years for many - making it much more attractive.

But the birthplace of the silicon revolution is not to be outdone as promising nanotech solar panel alternatives to silicon are being rapidly developed. Among the new companies working on nanotech solar are Miasoleand Nanosolar, right in our neighborhood. Profiled in Scientific American in May, the "nanonets" or "nanotrees" depending on who you talk to are transparent, light and flexible. This looks like a near-term technology - companies are scaling up manufacturing.

Hat tip to Climate Change Action (despite his poor spelling)!

Climate Action Plans! Get your Climate Action Plans!

Thurs, 6/7, 8:30AM - 12:30PM: Sustainability and Climate Action Plans - Getting Started and Maintaining progress an SSV Educational Forum, San Mateo City Library, 55 West 3rd Avenue, San Mateo. Registration is open!

· Effective Planning – Defining the Scope, Engaging the Support: Jennifer Shepherd, Canyon Snow Consulting

· Getting Started and Maintaining Progress in a Corporate Environment – Lori Duvall, Eco Responsibility Program Manager, Sun Microsystems

· Climate Protection in the Context of City Environmental Management – City of Palo Alto, City of San Mateo

Go. Learn. Get it done (or get your city to do it)!

Brass Tacks

We would like to believe that it's all going to be easy - CFLs, some hybrids, maybe a little carpooling - but the truth is, Kermit not withstanding, it's not. Berkeley looks poised to bite the bullet.

Six months after Berkeley voters overwhelmingly passed Measure G, a mandate to reduce the city's greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050, the city is laying out a long-term road map for residents, business and industry. It includes everything from solar panels at the Pacific Steel foundry to composted table scraps.


While San Francisco, Oakland and other local governments in the Bay Area have approved policies aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, Berkeley is the first to begin spelling out how people would be expected to reduce their carbon footprints.

Some measures will be popular and easy, like a car-share vehicle on every block and free bus passes. But others will be bitter pills, such as strict and costly requirements that homes have new high-efficiency appliances, solar-powered water heaters, insulation in the walls and other energy savers.

What we do know is that NEAR TERM actions, efficiency gains, are relatively easy and in many cases have cost benefits. But more difficult needs farther out are more difficult. Of course, as the economy shifts to address these concerns, costs will come down. How fast? No one knows.

We just know for sure that NOT acting is MUCH more expensive...

More on Berkeley's plans here.

What we've done (but also what we can do!)

Music by Linkin Park making the rounds. A little off my beaten path but compelling...



Some strong opinions on YouTube but I liked it. Of course, the other side of the coin is the enormous creative potential of people. We're starting to see it now around climate solutions. We CAN get this done.

Hat tip DailyKos

Moms are on it…


Cool Families of Redwood City!

The idea arose from an e-mail that Taylor sent out to the Redwood City Mother's Club e-list in early 2006, asking if anyone was as worried as she was about the local effects of climate change. The response was powerful.

"Other mothers e-mailed me back, saying, 'Yes! I'm so glad I'm not the only one out here who's thinking about this,'" said Taylor. The idea for a virtual study group with up-to-date tips on conservation and waste reduction suited the young families in the group, who don't have time to research it all on their own.

Taylor liked the idea of transforming the complex, daunting issue of climate change into achievable local actions, such as installing compact fluorescent light bulbs or biking to work. The Cool Families newsletter reaches over 1,000 local subscribers a month now, mostly through forwards to the Mother's Club, church groups, and parents affiliated with several local schools.

Coulda been a contender...

As previously noted, South San Francisco signed the Mayors' Climate Protection Agreement on May 9th. Only a week later Tulsa, Oklahoma signed and became the 500th city to sign the agreement - bummer for South SF not to get that limelight opportunity - but now with Tulsa the total number of people who live in cities that have signed MCPA and committed to fight global warming is up to 64 million (actually we're now up to 514 - seems cities can't wait!).

Saying that he wanted to “show the world there was intelligent life in the United States after all,” Nickels drafted the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, calling on other U.S. mayors to join him in a nationwide grassroots effort to address global warming at the local level.

Locally, cities on the peninsula that have signed are: Atherton, Cupertino, Los Altos, Menlo Park, Morgan Hill, Palo Alto, Portola Valley, Redwood City, San Bruno, San Jose, San Mateo, Santa Clara, South San Francisco. Over a third signed this year as local citizens throughout the region began asking their cities to do so.

Has your city signed? If not, tell your mayor to sign! And if yours signed, make sure they are implementing!

Cleantech investment accelerates

Perspective piece in the Merc

Clean-tech investments, also referred to as green tech, at first focused on solar energy, wind power, fuel cells and biofuels, such as ethanol. By 2006, U.S. investment totaled $2.5 billion, and Silicon Valley investment climbed to $290 million in the third quarter. This level of investment has helped expand the market for alternative energy, which reached $55 billion last year, and is projected to reach more than $200 billion by 2016.

Interestingly, a significant portion is going into water related areas.

The Environmental Protection Agency predicts many states will face water shortages by 2013. Some scientists also warn that if global warming triggers melting of the snowpack in the Sierra Nevada, California will face severe water shortages and the potential collapse of its agricultural industry. At the same time, salt content is increasing in the Colorado River, the primary source of water for 27 million Californians, making treatment more expensive and difficult.

Water will be one of the greatest impacts of climate change but our aging inefficient water systems also consume enormous amounts of energy to pump it, treat it, etc. Water efficiency is also energy efficiency.

Colbert's The Word: Heated Debate

Heaven forbid universities should teach science!



Hat tip: Gristmill

It's a wave! SSF signs

From Julio...

I was just informed that the full city council of South San Francisco agreed to the mayor signing the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement earlier
this month.

Good news and apparently enlightened comments as well!

It would be great to get a Cool Cities Team in place soon to help with the
implementation phase.

Regards,

Julio

Anybody? Anybody? Bueller? Bueller?

Ok, so the Daily News complained about Palo Alto's plans to take climate change seriously. It seems they don't want any city spending on the problem.

Residents expect the city to provide key services - libraries, parks, police, street maintenance and the like - with the local revenue. City officials have not made a convincing case for the need of a new layer of local government to protect the environment when there

But we know from the Stern report that it will be MUCH more expensive to do nothing. Its main conclusions are that one percent of global gross domestic product (GDP) per annum is required to be invested in order to avoid the worst effects of climate change, and that failure to do so could risk global GDP being up to twenty percent lower than it otherwise might be. And the only way to address the problem is if we ALL take some responsibility - personal, organizations & businesses, local governments, states, countries.

This reminds me of that old joke:

Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, And Nobody

This is a little story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody.

There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it.

Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody's job. Everybody thought that Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn't do it.

It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done!

Biodiesel - why not?
South San Francisco is making moves, running fire engines and other vehicles and machines on the stuff.

“There are about 220 vehicles at any given time running for the city,” said [Public Works Supervisor] Aquilina. “Many of those run on diesel. But there are also machines, such as pumps and generators, that run on diesel.”

Looks like a trend in the region

Here's a look at San Francisco's efforts:


More here on biodiesel

Belmont and land-use

So the mayor of Belmont refused to sign the Mayors' Climate Protection Agreement. It seems Feierbach would prefer to ignore that most of the growth is from the families in our communities.

Redwood City however, makes the connection between good planning, protecting the environment and dealing with the housing crisis:

Redwood City Mayor Barbara Pierce, who signed the agreement last month, was eager to explain. She said her city has done research on the housing market and found lots of young singles and couples who work in Redwood City.

"These are the people that are leaving the Peninsula in droves because they can't afford to live here," Pierce said. "They are the work force. And now they're driving here from other places."

Rather than fight growth, Pierce said, Peninsula leaders should plan for it carefully. She said Redwood City has invested heavily in programs to recycle wastewater for landscaping, freeing drinking water.

Google.org grants for 100 MPG

"Here's an investment with social returns that is of interest to investors looking for financial returns."

That's the truth!

Hat tip to Philanthropy 2173

When it is all over...

A "retrospective documentary" looking back from 2048

Climate: A Crisis Averted

Poor Sierra pack leads state to push water conservation

The real concern is that a changing climate will make dry years -- and potentially record-breaking droughts -- much more common than once thought possible. Areas like Northern California, which rely heavily on mountain snowpack to supplement built reservoirs, stand to be most affected.

We're going to see more of this...

San Mateo and Joint Venture Silicon Valley initiative

The City of San Mateo is participating in the newly formed Joint Venture Climate Change Task Force.

This will be a buying consortium and collaborative venue. This is good because with all our small cities to really get serious about climate change there will need to be significant regional collaboration (especially to get at good urban planning - a major major factor as mentioned 2 posts down...).

San Mateo and Mountain View evidently did a regional survey and found:

· 50% have or plan to conduct an inventory of CO2 emissions by city/county operations
· 25% have already set CO2 emission reduction goals
· 50% already have resident-based organizations advising the city/county
· 80% already have building retrofit programs to reduce energy use
· 93% have installed low energy, light emitting diode (LED), traffic signals
· 64% have already purchased hybrid vehicles
· 54% have already installed solar panels to generate electricity

This is somewhat interesting though this summary is not very deep. Setting emissions reduction goals is good but what are the targets? What percentage of vehicles are hybrid? How much power is being generated by the solar panels? Gotta track down a copy of the survey...

More news on this from KGO.