Reversing global climate change daunting but 'doable'

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

By Nancy Taylor

When asked for hopeful signs that the U.S. and the world are capable of dealing with global climate change, Glenn Prickett, executive director of Conservation International’s Center for Environmental Leadership and Business, cites the grassroots efforts across the country.

Included in that grassroots movement are the 402 mayors who have signed the Mayor’s Climate Protection Agreement, committing their communities to reducing their emissions of carbon dioxide. Jackson Mayor Mark Barron is one of those 402.

The mayor’s Green Team and Energy Efficiency Board are working on initiatives for economic sustainability and environmental stewardship for Jackson. Already the town’s switch from incandescent to fluorescent light bulbs has kept 64,000 pounds of CO2 out of the atmosphere, and will save taxpayers $4,000 a year.

On Sunday evening, Barron partnered with Prickett to present a program titled “Taking Action on Climate Change.”

While Barron shared the good news of what Teton County has done — both historically and in more recent days — to preserve the environment and decrease its carbon footprint, Prickett’s portion of the evening was more sobering.

He first led the 70 or so audience members through a quick tutorial about global climate change. Based on air bubbles trapped in ice core samples in the Arctic, scientists such as Thomas Stocker of the University of Bern, Switzerland, have concluded that current CO2 levels are about 30 percent higher than at any other time before now.

Prickett also referred to the “Stabilization Triangle” developed by a pair of researchers at Princeton University, which suggests that we already have the technology to solve our emissions problems, but we do not have the infrastructure, laws or funding in place to implement them.

Globally, CO2 emissions total 7 billion tons per year. That number is expected to double in the next 50 years.

For existing technologies to make a difference, we will need 2 million windmills, cars will need to get 30 to 60 miles to the gallon, and natural gas energy plants will need to replace coal-fired plants.

So far, the United States has not shown the political will to address global warming, but Prickett thinks that is changing.

He is hopeful that we will see some sort of legislation coming out of the U.S. House of Representatives that will mandate emission caps and create a system for trading emissions, as the European Union has.

“Whether the President signs that legislation is another matter,” he said.

Conservation International (CI) is not waiting for legislation to take effect.

CI is working in the poorer countries where the nonprofit sector has been addressing deforestation and biodiversity issues for years.

Now that global climate change is a hot issue, CI is forming partnerships with industry to “jump-start the creation of a robust, global market for multiple-benefit land based projects and their associated carbon offsets,” Prickett said.

Among recent triumphs are the Climate, Community & Biodiversity Alliance (CCBA), comprised of five of the world’s leading companies — including British Petroleum, Weyerhaeuser and Intel — and five non-governmental organizations — including Conservation International, the Nature Conservancy and the Wildlife Conservation Society.

To enter the global carbon offset market, CCBA is setting standards called the Climate, Community and Biodiversity Standards.

Projects must meet 15 criteria to qualify as an investment for a business that needs to offset its emissions.

CCBA’s innovative approach of including biodiversity, protection of local communities along with addressing deforestation may prove to be a popular way for industry to address global climate change.

The British Stern Report predicts that global warming will impact poorer nations more severely, and the World Economic Forum says that global warming could cause $250 billion in economic losses over the next 10 years.

Prickett pointed out, however, that all of the big movements in the United States — from abolition to civil rights — started at the grassroots level. Given that, Jackson Hole’s initiatives show true leadership.

If Jackson Hole wants to continue to lead, Prickett recommends we pursue Green Building — not only for the reduced emissions and savings, but for the added bonus of increased worker productivity — and become carbon neutral, increasing efficiency and buying offsets to bring emissions to zero.
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