Summit No. 1: Energy and Climate Change
 Action Plan |
June 5-7, 2006
The first of the four National Leadership Summits - on Energy and Climate Change - was held June 5-7 at the Wingspread Conference Center in Racine, Wisconsin.
Forty national leaders from business, government, academia, finance and the nonprofit community participated and, unanimous in their sense of urgency about climate protection, produced an action plan that contains 28 projects for immediate implementation.
Action items include:
| • A how-to guidebook for Mayors who have made commitments to reduce their cities' greenhouse gas emissions. More than 230 Mayors have signed the U.S. Mayor's Climate Protection Agreement, pledging that their cities will comply with Kyoto targets. The guidebook will include model executive orders, policies, strategic plans and other helpful documents. • An analysis of the powers, programs and capabilities of each Federal agency in regard to climate protection, for the use of the next President in creating a climate action agenda for his or her first 100 days in office. • An analysis of "perverse incentives" in federal policies and laws that encourage practices that contribute to global warming, or discourage practices that reduce carbon emissions. • The development of a "U.S. Climate Action Pledge" that can be signed by companies, institutions, elected leaders, candidates for office and individual citizens. In addition to a summary of the complete Action Plan, this site contains the Energy and Climate Change Summit agenda and biographies of the 40 participants. |
| A video from the Energy and Climate Change Summit in June is now available. It is approximately 9 minutes in length. |
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| Global dimming: This 49-minute video is a documentary aired by the BBC science program, Horizon. The documentary argues that five decades of sunlight measurements suggest that the amount of solar energy reaching the Earth's surface has been gradually falling because of atmospheric pollution. The decline in sunlight may mean that global warming is
accelerating at a far greater rate than previously thought. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1027879546389218797 |
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Energy Market and Economic Impacts of a Proposal to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Intensity with a Cap and Trade System
Market and Economic Impacts of a Proposal to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Intensity with a Cap and Trade System This report was prepared by the Energy Information Administration (EIA), in response to a September 27, 2006, request from Senators Bingaman, Landrieu, Murkowski, Specter, Salazar, and Lugar. The Senators requested that EIA assess the impacts of a proposal that would regulate emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) through an allowance cap-and-trade system. The program would set the cap to achieve a reduction in emissions relative to economic output, or greenhouse gas intensity. January 11, 2007 (90 pages, PDF) |
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Business Case Examples of GHG Reductions A report by Chris Laszlo containing two business case studies on Climate Action Wingspread, December 4 - 6, 2006 [PDF / 483KB] |
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What role can energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies play in reducing America's greenhouse gas emissions to help stabilize the climate? According to Chuck Kutscher of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, off-the-shelf efficiency and renewable energy technologies are sufficient to prevent further growth of U.S. GHG emissions this century. Kutscher has coordinated a study by researchers from several national laboratories and the Rocky Mountain Institute on the role that energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies can play in mitigating global warming. Their findings will be announced early in 2007 by the American Solar Energy Society. Kutscher has written a short article on this subject. It's available at: www.solartoday.org/2006/july_aug06/Climate_JA06_Kutscher.pdf [PDF 1.1 MB] |
American Energy: The Renewable Path to Energy Security, a report just released by the Worldwatch Institute and the Center for American Progress, details how the emerging renewable energy industries can address U.S. energy demands, national security, and the environment, as well as similar concerns around the globe. To access the report, go to: http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/news/story?id=46015
Lighting the Key to Energy Saving
The following report concludes that switching to more efficient lighting systems could significant reduce demand for electricity.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/5128478.stm
Americans generally agree that the earth is getting warmer, but there is less consensus about the cause of global warming or what should be done about it. Read the details of these latest findings from the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.
| Redefining Progress has done pioneering work on sustainable indicators systems for communities, as well as research on the economic benefits of climate action www.rprogress.org/index.shtml |
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GOVERNOR NAPOLITANO OF ARIZONA ISSUES EXECUTIVE ORDER TO PROMOTE ENERGY EFFICIENCY Order Steps Up Efforts to Reduce "Greenhouse Gas" Emissions [PDF 40 KB] |
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Is There Still Time to Avoid 'Dangerous Anthropogenic Interference' with Global Climate? [PDF 5.34 MB] |
| Chicago Climate Exchange Chicago, Illinois June 14, 2006. A report By Ray C. Anderson [PDF 165 KB] |
| From Risk to Opportunity: How Insurers Can Proactively and Profitably Manage Climate Change A report Evan Mills, Ph.D. and Eugene Lecomte [PDF 789 KB] |
| Secretary Bodman Announces $2 Billion Federal Loan Guarantee Program as Part of First Anniversary Celebration of Energy Policy Act |
The Global Roundtable on Climate Change brings together more than 150 high-level, critical stakeholders from all regions of the world — including senior executives from the private sector and leaders of international governmental and non-governmental organizations — to discuss and explore areas of potential consensus regarding core scientific, technological, and economic issues critical to shaping sound public policies on climate change. Such a consensus, if reached, could have a major impact on the international community due to the high-profile stakeholder status and top-tier professional positions of Roundtable participants.
Meeting twice a year for three years, the Roundtable engages in detailed, science-based, non-confrontational discussion and analysis in order to work through difficult problems and explore potential areas of consensus that could have broad and unprecedented buy-in. Such a structured deliberative process among leaders from business, government, academia and civil society has proven to be a highly effective means for discussing possible solutions to complex problems. Over the past few years, Jeffrey D. Sachs, director of the Earth Institute and Chair of the Roundtable, has found great benefits in this approach in his work on commissions and consensus-building.
For more information please visit http://www.earthinstitute.columbia.edu/grocc/