Re/Action on Climate Protection

New Orleans - America's First Zero Carbon City?

Musing about the possibilities in rebuilding New Orleans:

Wouldn't it be an amazing statement to rebuild New Orleans as America's first zero net carbon city?

• All electric power derived from renewable sources
• New housing so tightly integrated with services that individual cars not required
• Car-free downtown
• All municipal transportation systems powered by renewably generated electric power or biofuels
• New housing all net zero carbon
• Any carbon emitted during construction is offset by tree planting and wetland restoration and/or investment in new renewably powered energy generation

This would be a concrete statement to the rest of the world that America cares about global warming and the need to transition to a zero carbon economy. It would show that the richest nation on earth has heard the wakeup call and is ready to join the rest of humanity in solving global warming.

Write to the governor of Louisiana and the mayor of New Orleans and suggest it. No, demand it! Write to your senators and representatives to urge them to earmark the federal dollars for the reconstruction of New Orleans to be used for Green Building, zero net energy government facilities and renewable energy and fuel sources.

Here is what the City of Melbourne, AU is doing:

http://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/info.cfm?top=235&pg=1618

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

Climate Protection Campaign White Paper Wiki

Please look at our white paper wiki. Here:

http://climateprotectioncampaign.jot.com

This is a living document that is updated by our authors to reflect the best thinking on local solutions to the climate change crisis.

Please send comments to dave[at]climateprotectioncampaign.org (replace [at] with @)

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.

News from Climate Protection Campaign

Climate Protection Campaign has been working with all nine municipalities in Sonoma County, California to:

• create inventories of GHG emissions
• set GHG emissions reduction targets
• create climate action plans (CAP) to reach those targets
• implement the CAPs
• monitor progress

At this date, all of the Sonoma County municipalities, as well as the County government, have completed greenhouse gas inventories. Eight of the nine municipalities, as well as the County government, have set GHG reduction targets for both municipal operations and for the community. The community target being adopted is aggressive: 25% below 1990 levels by the year 2015.

Several of the municipalities have started their climate action plans. The County of Sonoma has nearly completed its plan. Climate Protection Campaign has an energy tracking system in place that contains four years of energy use data for all municipal accounts for all cities in the county. This database is being updated every quarter so that reports can be generated that show energy consumption and GHG emissions for each city.

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.