CLIMATE - Environmental Defense Fund
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
Our integrated strategy to prevent dangerous climate
change combines federal, state and international initiatives.
CLIMATE
WHY WE WORK “For the first time, climate and
ON CLIMATE energy were important issues in
a presidential election. We now
have a historic opportunity to
get the legislation right, for our
climate, our economy and our
children.”
Steve Cochran
National climate campaign director
C L I MATE : NATI O NAL
“We can – and we must – send a signal to
the markets and to a waiting world that the
era of American inaction on climate is over.”
Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL)
at an EDF climate briefing attended by more than
30 U.S. senators and representatives
science and economics. Our analy- alliance we helped launch that calls
MOMENTUM BUILDS FOR U.S. sis showed that a declining cap on for a national carbon cap. Member
ACTION ON GLOBAL WARMING carbon emissions will have negli- companies represent virtually every
“I did it for my children.” That’s need to build the infrastructure gible impact on long-term economic sector of the economy and operate in
how Florida’s Republican Senator for a new energy economy.” growth, while helping to end our oil all 50 states.
OCEANS
Mel Martinez described his June In Montana, Senator Baucus addiction. By showing how climate legislation
2008 vote to advance debate on the backed climate action after we With jobs taking center stage, we can help stimulate the economy, we
Lieberman-Warner Climate Security persuaded the Montana Grain teamed up with Duke University kept the issue high on the political
Act. Martinez was joined by Max Growers Association to support it. to produce case studies of job agenda. Now we will hold President
Baucus (D-MT) and nine other And in Martinez’s home state, creation. Many of the brick and Obama and members of Congress to
senators who previously had voted we produced scientific research on mortar jobs for new energy their campaign pledges to cap global
against a similar measure. Florida’s vulnerability to climate technologies will be in America’s warming pollution.
The surge in support, brought change and rising seas. To draw manufacturing heartland, where
ONLINE: Read our climate
on with help from Environmental attention to solutions, we even hundreds of companies already
experts’ blog at climate411.org
Defense Fund, set the stage for sponsored the first fishing tourna- are benefiting from the business of
passage of a national climate bill ment ever to offset all its global renewable energy and energy ef-
U.S. SENATE CLIMATE VOTES
in 2009. “The economic downturn warming pollution. In the end, ficiency. For example, wind turbine
E C O SYST E M S
100
doesn’t diminish the urgency for Florida senators voted to move the manufacturer Gamesa has retooled 95
climate legislation,” says our national Lieberman-Warner bill forward. a steel plant in Ebensburg, PA, Oppose
climate campaign director Steve When special interests mounted creating nearly 1,000 manufactur- 80
NUMBER OF SENATORS
Cochran. “Congress is finally debat- a multimillion-dollar campaign to ing jobs.
ing the details of legislation and its spread fear about the cost of climate Bolstering our case, 26 Fortune 60
Votes
60
55 54
needed
impact on utility bills and jobs. We action, we countered with sound 500 companies joined USCAP, an to block a
filibuster 43
40 38
36
20
Support
0 0
1997 2003 2005 2008
Unrelenting pressure by EDF and its allies
has brought America to the threshold of
H E ALT H
climate action.
VENTURE CAPITAL INVESTMENT
IN CLEAN TECHNOLOGY
3.0
INVESTMENT (in billions of dollars)
2.5
2.0
1.5
1.0
Total U.S. Venture capital investment in low-
carbon technologies has skyrock-
0.5 eted since passage of the Global
California Warming Solutions Act, with much
0
2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 of the investment in California.
San Francisco is looking into harnessing the tides
under the Golden Gate Bridge to generate electricity.
The plan will alter how utilities WHY WE WORK
generate electricity, automakers design IN THE STATES
cars and refineries make fuel. Our ex- “The states alone can’t solve global
perts have provided technical advice warming, but they are putting
and are working with industry and widespread pressure on Washington.
academic researchers to devise strict We’re showing how strong climate
environmental standards for biofuels. legislation will create jobs.”
Our success in California has rein- Jim Marston
forced regional initiatives in the West State climate initiatives director
and the East to reduce global warm-
ing pollution, with the nation’s first
auction of emission allowances taking
place in 2008.
STATES LEAD THE WAY Before California’s pioneering ac-
ON CLIMATE ACTION tion, venture capital investment in
Far from Washington, DC, in state- To make sure the rules are strong clean technology was drifting over-
houses and courthouses across the and effective, we dispatched a team seas. Now, the United States accounts
country, states are acting on global of economic and policy experts to for more than 80% of global clean
warming, laying the foundation for a Sacramento. “By capping emissions, tech investment, with two-thirds of
nationwide low-carbon economy. No California has taken the lead in ad- that in California. Innovations such as
state has done more than California. dressing energy security, environmen- low-carbon biofuels, ocean energy and
The Golden State made history this tal quality and economic growth,” says plug-in hybrid cars may soon flourish.
year when it began implementing its attorney Jim Marston, who spearhead- With the world’s sixth largest econ-
Global Warming Solutions Act, which ed our effort. omy, California will also influence the
Environmental Defense Fund cospon- California’s plan promotes renewable pivotal 2009 world climate nego-
sored and helped draft. The law sets energy, low-carbon fuels, more efficient tiations in Denmark. Says Marston:
the nation’s first economy-wide cap on appliances and stricter building stan- “The road to Copenhagen starts in
greenhouse gas emissions, requiring a dards. It also authorizes a carbon cap- Sacramento.”
15% cut below current levels by 2020. and-trade program to keep costs low.
ONLINE: Get the latest climate
news at edf.org/globalwarming08
“The clean-tech revolution is using our greatest strength — innovation — to solve
C L I MATE : STATE S
our biggest challenge. Environmental Defense Fund’s bipartisan advocacy
is helping to lay the foundation.”
John Chambers
Chairman and CEO, Cisco Systems
COAL’S DAY OF Building on that success, we negoti-
ated with investment banks, includ-
RECKONING ing Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and
With roughly half of U.S. electricity Morgan Stanley, to impose new envi-
coming from coal, Environmental ronmental standards on financing for
O C EA N S
Defense Fund has set out to make coal coal plants. The standards are shifting
cleaner and promote sustainable alter- investor focus away from old-style coal
natives. Some 73 proposed coal-fired plants toward an entire range of low-
power plants in 31 states have been can- carbon options, including wind, solar
celed or delayed in the last two years, and geothermal.
thanks in part to our work.
In Colorado, our staff and allies
worked with Xcel Energy on a plan to
close two aging coal plants, expand
energy efficiency and add 1,000 mega-
watts of wind and solar power. “Xcel
TEXAS LENGTHENS ITS LEAD
is reducing global warming pollution IN WIND POWER
E C O SYSTE M S
while providing reliable, low-cost en- Amid rusting oil derricks on a wind- The wind industry received another
ergy in a fast-growing market,” says our swept mesa in Sweetwater, TX, new boost this year when we helped con-
deputy general counsel Vickie Patton. wind turbines whir in the distance. vince state regulators to approve new
COAL IN RETREAT
The turning point came in 2007 when “I’ve been an oilman all my life,” says power lines to carry West Texas wind
In the past two years, 73 coal plants
two private equity firms enlisted our have been canceled or delayed across wind investor T. Boone Pickens, “but energy to urban areas. This removed a
help in acquiring the Texas utility TXU. the country. EDF is helping utilities meet this is one emergency we can’t drill major bottleneck.
To gain our support, the buyers agreed growing electricity needs through cleaner our way out of.” “EDF played a major role in help-
technologies and energy efficiency.
to scrap plans for eight coal plants and Pickens’s conversion speaks vol- ing the new policy become a reality,”
double the company’s investment in umes. Texas has become a world says Mike Sloan, former director of
renewable energy and efficiency. leader in wind power, a shift spurred the Wind Coalition. Under the new
by the state’s electric restructuring plan, the Lone Star State could more
bill that EDF championed back in than triple its wind capacity by 2015.
1999. The law required an increase
in renewable energy.
H E A LT H
14 Number of states that have adopted California’s
clean car law, which we helped draft and defend
50% Minimum reduction in global greenhouse
gas emissions needed by 2050
THE ROAD TO A GLOBAL CLIMATE SOLUTION
How we’ll help win a lasting agreement
Q: What will it take to get develop- Now allies in Brazil have proposed
ing nations to engage? a plan that would award credits in the
Our goal is to get these countries to global carbon market to nations that
join the global treaty. Credits for pro- reduce deforestation. Our staff helped
tecting tropical forests, for example, advance that plan at recent climate
can give poor nations an incentive to talks. They and other scientists showed
stop deforestation. how reduced deforestation can be veri-
Such an approach will help break fied accurately using satellite-based
the North-South logjam we’ve had radar sensors.
since Kyoto. Of course, until America Carbon credits will give tropical methane-based biodigesters for homes,
leads, other nations will not see any forests the value they need to survive. replacing smoky cooking fires with
reason to act. Without them, nearly half the Amazon clean gas stoves.
Climate program director Peter Goldmark could be gone by 2050. Early steps in this project already
explains our strategy to help achieve a Q: Why is protecting rainforests have begun lowering carbon emissions,
global agreement at the Copenhagen
so important? Q: How can we help both the generating emission credits that help
negotiations in December 2009.
The burning of tropical forests climate and the world’s poor? offset the project’s cost.
Q: Why is fighting global warming causes 20% of global greenhouse gas As the economies of countries like
different from other problems? emissions, and previous treaties did India expand, they face a choice Q: Is there a nexus between
To solve the global climate crisis, nothing about it. whether to grow with dirty energy energy, economic development
all countries must be engaged. Unlike sources or healthier alternatives. and climate?
most pollution problems, there can’t To promote the better choice, we Absolutely. The desire for a higher
be a U.S. solution without China and have partnered with E+Co, a non- standard of living is part of the human
India. We’re in this boat together, row- profit investment group, and Grameen condition. The path toward climate sta-
ing against a ticking clock. Bank in Bangladesh. Grameen has bility and the path out of poverty have
built a factory there to manufacture to be the same.
ONLINE: Watch more of Peter Goldmark’s interview on the global climate
challenge at edf.org/climatestrategy08
C L I MATE : I NTE R NATI O NAL
Copenhagen
Washington, D.C.
Small island states Our work in several parts of
like Jamaica are China is helping create the
drawing attention to foundation for emissions
the grave risks they trading markets in the most
We have 70 people face from global populous nation on Earth.
working in 16 states warming and sea
level rise.
O C EA N S
on climate, building
momentum for U.S.
action and a global
agreement.
Our Bangladesh partnership
Allies in Brazil are helping with Grameen Bank is
to advance proposals for bringing families cleaner-
Reducing Emissions from burning stoves that reduce
Deforestation and Forest GLOBAL ACTORS unhealthful air pollution and
Degradation (REDD). greenhouse gas emissions.
Rainforest nations
China
India
Other developing nations
United States
European Union
Russia
Other developed nations
E C O SYSTE M S
From Washington
THE SOLUTION: COLLECTIVE ACTION
to Copenhagen
Greenhouse gas emissions
Solving the global climate crisis is the (gigatons of CO2 equivalent per year)
Minimum reduction
world’s biggest environmental challenge. 50 needed by 2050
Scientists tell us that to stabilize
The new administration in Washington
the Earth’s atmosphere and avert
raises the prospect of prompt U.S. catastrophic climate change, global
40
warming pollution needs to be cut
action, creating a fresh context for the 50% or more by 2050.
December 2009 international negotiations Deforestation
This graph shows one scenario,
in Copenhagen. The agreement reached 30
with developed nations reducing
China
there will replace the Kyoto treaty, which emissions immediately and devel-
India oping nations soon afterward.
expires in 2012. Other developing nations
20
The talks must account for emissions
from deforestation, which were over- United States
H EA LT H
looked in Kyoto, and engage developed 10
European Union
and developing nations alike. That is Russia
the only way to achieve the reductions Other developed nations
0
needed by mid-century. 1990 2000 2010 2020 2030 2040 2050
You can also read
