Tag Archives: Climate Summit

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ReCast | Solar in the Desert

The Solar System Dilemma

S

Stirling Solar SunCatcher, from NREL

Barry Commoner’s 2nd Law of Ecology: Everything must go somewhere.

Earlier this week I wrote my first piece as a correspondent for OnEarth, the online vision of the magazine of the same name, published by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).

Even amid charges and counter-charges of NIMBYism and wilderness destruction, this is an important discussion — too important to let it degenerate into the same old shouting match.

For some background on this debate, I want to highlight one of my favorite radio discussions on the subject: “Solar Power Scales Up,” first broadcast on NPR’s excellent program, Science Friday,with host Ira Flatow on March 14, 2008.

Some of the hypotheticals discussed on the show are now becoming realities.

Rep. Giffords, Pre-Copenhagen

US Rep. Gabrielle Giffords

Among the guests on the show is Arizona Congresswoman, Representative Gabrielle Giffords. Two years after the radio show, Giffords is now receiving some much-deserved national and international attention as one of the leading voices in congress for solar power.

Her Solar Technology Roadmap bill has passed the full House and was recently discussed in a Senate hearing on what could be amendments to the climate bill.

Jonathon Overpeck, director of the Environmental Studies Laboratory in the Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, was a coordinating lead author for the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment. When Giffords was in Copenhagen as part of the official Congressional Delegation to the COP15 summit, I asked Overpeck what he thought of the congresswoman’s work on solar power. After all, in Congress you don’t have the luxury of working on just one issue. At any given time, there are a dozen or more important bills requiring your attention.

“I’m not sure anyone knows more about climate change issues and solar in Congress than Rep. Giffords,” Overpeck responded.

So, check out this broadcast. Don’t worry, there’s still plenty of time to catch the dogs barking “Jingle Bells” later.

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Other experts on the show:

Frederick Morse
Senior Advisor for the U.S.
Abengoa Solar
Washington, DC

David Mills
Chairman, Founcer, Chief Research Officer
Ausra Incorporated
Palo Alto, California

Mark Mehos
Program Manager
Concentrating Solar Power Program
DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Golden, Colorado

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Indigenous Leader: Lead-up to COP15 Epitomized Climate Injustice

Patricia Cochran, Chair, Inuit Circumpolar Council

Patricia Cochran, Chair, Inuit Circumpolar Council

Even though Native Peoples have been among the first to feel the effects of climate change, they had little say in lead-up to the recent UN Climate Summit in Copenhagen, say leaders like Patricia Cochran, Chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council.

Cochran’s charge is contained in a recent article by reporter Terri Hansen in Indian Country Today.

Still, some leaders focused on what they saw as positive developments for Native Peoples coming out of COP15, reports Hansen. Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, chair of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, told Hansen:

“We managed to bring in the recognition of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, an important instrument to ensure the rights and the knowledge of indigenous peoples is respected in all climate mitigation and adaptation processes.”

(Download The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.)

From "Indigenous Peoples' Global Summit on Climate Change

Last April, Native Peoples from around the world met in Anchorage, Alaska, to hold a pre-Copenhagen summit on climate change.

The meeting summit produced a report documenting a Native agenda for dealing with climate change. (Download the report.)

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Congressional Delegation in Copenhagen

Rep. Giffords touring ASU solar array

Rep. Giffords touring ASU solar array this fall

US Representative Gabrielle Giffords, a strong advocate of solar power and sustainable development, is in Copenhagen, along with twenty other members of Congress, for what is sure to be a contentious final negotiation on a climate treaty.

“We need to work with the White House to make sure the United States is not only heard at these crucial talks,” Giffords said in a statement released by her office today, “but lead the way toward an agreement that will maximize the benefits for both our economy and out environment.”

The Solar Roadmap

Giffords sponsored the “Solar Technology Roadmap Act” that recently passed by House by a wide margin. The legislation, which would create a panel to coordinate federal spending on solar research and development, was one of a handful of bills discussed at a Senate hearing last week. (For more on the Roadmap, go here.)

Copenhagen Congressional Delegation

California Democratic Representative George Miller is blogging the meetings. He writes:

Everybody seems to think that the fact that the House of Representatives passed an energy and climate bill has really been a positive force during these international negations and strengthens the United States hand here (I guess Speaker Pelosi was right to push for passage of the legislation earlier this year).

The next briefing, from our technical people, was on how reductions will be made and what the impact will be on our economy and the ways to verify that all countries are playing by the same rules.

The stakes are high for our global environment and for our economy — every country here knows that the countries that get ahead on these issues have the opportunity create real economic and job growth for their economies in this new green economic environment. This is why we are trying to shift to a new energy policy in the U.S., to create jobs at home and send U.S. exports abroad.

Next we will be off to meet with a delegation from India — more later.

Here’s a list of the full Congressional delegation, with each member’s twitter ID. (You can see their twitter feed by hovering over the icon before the name.)

Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi

Majority Leader Steny Hoyer

Rep. George Miller, Chairman, Committee on Education and Labor

Rep. Henry Waxman, Chairman, Committee on Energy and Commerce

Rep. Ed Markey, Chairman, Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming

Rep. Charles Rangel, Chairman, Committee on Ways and Means

Rep. Bart Gordon, Chairman, Committee on Science and Technology

Rep. James Sensenbrenner, Ranking Member, Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming Committee on Science and Technology

Rep. Sander Levin, Committee on Ways and Means

Rep. Joe Barton, Ranking Member, Committee on Energy and Commerce

Rep. Fred Upton, Committee on Energy and Commerce

Rep. Earl Blumenauer, Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming

Rep. Diana DeGette, Committee on Energy and Commerce

Rep. Jay Inslee, Committee on Energy and Commerce Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming

Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming

Rep. John Sullivan, Committee on Energy and Commerce Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming

Rep. Marsha Blackburn, Committee on Energy and Commerce Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming

Rep. Timothy Ryan, Committee on Appropriations: Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development

Rep. G.K. Butterfield, Committee on Energy and Commerce

Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, Committee on Science and Technology