Re/Action on Climate Protection

Community Climate Action Plan

In 2006, all the city councils and the Board of Supervisors in Sonoma County, CA, endorsed a community (county)-wide greenhouse gas emissions reduction target of 25% below 1990 levels by 2015. An effort is now underway to develop an action plan to reach that target...and beyond.

Climate Protection Conference in Sonoma County

Last Friday, 7/14, the second Climate Protection: Everybody Profits conference was held in Sonoma County, CA. Speakers from local governments, businesses were featured along with a panel discussion of tools and solutions. The keynote speaker was Linda Adams, secretary of the California Environmental Protection agency. Here is a link to the article on the conference in the local paper. The Climate Protection Campaign presented a "report card" for the County, detailing emissions levels to date, and how far the County needs to go to reach its overall target of 25% below 1990 levels by 2015Download status_report_july_14_06.pdf

Zero Carbon New Development for the Gulf

Recently I had the opportunity to participate in a brainstorming session with a group of local experts on sustainable architecture, green building, green business. Craig Williams, founder of the group Architects Without Borders, had recently visited Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana. He felt that there was an opportunity there to present a rebuilding strategy that was innovative, sustainable and low carbon. As the representative of the Climate Protection community, I was invited to write a high-level, executive summary treatment of what zero carbon redevelopment in the Gulf States would involve, and what it might look like. Here is the paper. I'd be very interested in your thoughts on it. Download vision_for_rebuilding_the_gulf.doc

What is driving the growth in GHG emissions?

What is the root cause of growth in GHG emissions in the United States? GHG emissions grew by about 1.3% per year in the US, according to the Pew Center on Global Climate Change. In the 1990's the primary growth components were electricity generation and transportation.

However, the growth rate of the GDP during this period was 2.9% per year. Energy use per dollar of GDP fell by 1.7% per year, while CO2 per unit of energy use stayed about the same.

According to the Pew study,

Why Energy Efficiency for GHG Reduction?

Efficiency in energy use represents a technological approach to reducing energy use and GHG emissions without "sacrifice". Better technology, less energy use, same effect. Increased cost from new technology offset by savings from lower energy use. What's wrong with this picture?

Transportation Growth - The Big One

The countywide greenhouse gas inventory conducted by Climate Protection Campaign last year showed total growth in emissions of 28% between 1990 and 2000, double the national average. Although population growth during this period was 18%, growth in emissions in the transportation sector was a whopping 43%! Vehicle miles traveled or VMT, is the base statistic used to calculate emissions from the transportation sector. How can we reach our goal of reducing emissions by 25% below 1990 levels by 2015, when emissions are projected to grow almost as much in the next 10 years?

Living Large and Zero Carbon?

Recently, the New York Times had an article titled, "Living Large, By Design, in Middle of Nowhere"

Here is the link: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/15/national/15exurb.html?ex=1126411200&en=4c7c267b3b439984&ei=5070 .

This article begins by describing a typical new Florida development, "four miles from the nearest grocery store and 30 minutes from the nearest major mall'. This is an example of the "exurb", a highly planned, marketing driven community design, targeted at "what young families want", determining "how many streetlights and cul-de-sacs will evoke a soothing sense of safety."

"Over the next decade, New River will expand to 1,800 acres and be home to 15,000 people living in 4,800 single-family homes...At the moment, though, it is nothing more than an island of 400 suburban homes in the middle of nowhere, an infant exurb."

These are large homes, crammed together on tiny lots. A survey of the buyers of these homes showed that "88 percent said [they wanted] a home security system, 93 percent said they preferred neighborhoods with 'more streetlights', and 96 percent insisted on deadbolt locks or security doors."

The market research also showed that the home buyers were willing to trade off price with commute time. The tradeoff was quantified and showed that a 15 minute longer commute meant that the home needed to be $12,000 cheaper, than the exact same home located closer to work.

With a backdrop of new development like this, large, energy-hungry homes, located in an area with no mass transit, and cars are required for even the most basic errands, growth in GHG emissions from current levels is a given. New development like this represents the creation of huge new demand for energy for transportation, water, wastewater, streetlighting and solid waste disposal.

In order stop the growth and begin reducing GHG emissions, two things have to happen: 1)Existing energy users must increase efficiency and reduce demand; 2)new development must be decoupled from increased fossil-based energy use. That is, new development must not result in increased GHG emissions.

How can this be accomplished? The key principles of zero carbon development are:

1. Inside existing urban boundaries
2. Increasingly concentrated in existing downtown core areas
3. Mixed-use, unless adding residential above existing commercial, or filling residential in among existing commercial uses
4. Pedestrian and bicycle oriented, which means wider sidewalks, dedicated bike paths, narrower streets, smaller turning radius, and “Eyes on the street” orientation of living areas
5. Higher densities in downtown core areas and near transit hubs
6. Redevelopment of core areas to place high density residential wherever on-grade parking presently exists in downtown areas
7. New development outside downtown cores and inside urban boundaries
8. Electric energy provided by renewable sources such as solar or wind
9. New homes constructed to be "net zero energy" using passive solar design principles.
10. Any new development linked to transit hubs
11. Water and wastewater systems designed to use minimum energy and be renewably powered. Rainwater harvesting, graywater and reclaimed water all aggressively deployed.
12. Link green building with walk-ability and convenient, inexpensive mass transit options.

See our white paper section on new development: http://climateprotectioncampaign.jot.com/NewDevelopment

Zero Carbon Home example.

http://www.livingvillage.com/concept

Zero net carbon

"Zero net carbon" or "low carbon" is a way of talking about the effect of human-caused GHG emissions on the atmospheric carbon dioxide level. If an activity is zero-net-carbon, it does not increase the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. It is clear that, in order to reverse the trend of increasing GHG emissions due to new demand for energy, new development must be zero net carbon. Here are some ways that this can be accomplished:

http://www.bedzed.org.uk/main.html

http://climateprotectioncampaign.jot.com/NewDevelopment

Achieving Zero Net Carbon

At Climate Protection Campaign, we have developed a strategy called "Carbon Removal". We look at each of the GHG emitting sectors: existing buildings, local energy system, transportation, water/wastewater, solid waste, agriculture, new development and forestry in the context of government, residential, commercial and industrial uses.

We then formulate what must be done to remove carbon emissions completely from each sector. Generally, these actions fall into two categories: demand side and supply side. On the demand side, we have found that energy efficiency measures top the list for fast, cost-effective GHG reductions. On the supply side, we are developing ways to transition our local energy supplies to renewable sources.

In my next few posts, I'll give some examples of the types of measures we are working on. I hope that other folks out there will share their experiences with working toward zero net carbon.

Action on Climate Protection

Hello, Climate Protection Campaign is launching our blog. This blog is intended to stimulate discussion about what can be done to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. We are currently working on projects at the local level, but we advocate action at all levels: local, state, federal and international.

What we want to do in this blog is to discuss solutions. We want to know what is working elsewhere in the world...and we want to share our experiences with what is working here in Sonoma County.

Although we will post articles on science and links to basic climate science, our aim is not primarily to discuss the science of global warming and climate change. We are not climate scientists, but we view the science of global warming as basically settled. We have adopted and endorse the findings of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), which are that:

• The planet is warming
• Most of the warming in the past 100 years is caused by humans (anthropogenic)
• The human activities most responsible for warming are emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) and deforestation.
• Emissions of GHGs that are causing global warming are primarily from the combustion of fossil fuels.
• Significant reduction in GHG emissions is necessary to prevent dangerous changes to the global climate.

In addition to the findings of the IPCC, our view is that meaningful reductions must be accomplished as quickly as possible in order to stabilize the level of atmospheric CO2 as low as possible.

We are looking forward to engaging in discussion with you about how to solve the climate crisis.