WonkLine: April 3, 2009
From the Wonk Room.
In Bonn, White House climate negotiator Jonathan Pershing said Obama’s plan to lower greenhouse gases to 1990 levels by 2020 is in the overlap of pragmatism and science.
Calling on developed nations to cut greenhouse emissions by “at least 45 percent below 1990 levels by 2020,” small island states say current targets are “going to destroy their countries.”
On Wednesday, 15 Democrats joined every Republican senator to preserve the filibuster against green economy legislation, even if “the Senate finds that public health, the economy and national security of the United States are jeopardized by inaction on global warming.”
Obama Plans Green Economy Listening Tour Before Inauguration
From the Wonk Room.
Dan Kammen, the director of the Renewable & Appropriate Energy Laboratory at UC Berkeley and a top adviser to President-elect Barack Obama (D-IL), has told E&E News that Obama may conduct a nationwide “listening tour” to allow his team to hit the ground running for a green recovery:
The incoming Obama team is considering a “listening tour” around the country on energy and environmental issues before Inauguration Day in an attempt to build momentum for its policies and legislative plans.Last month, Obama told Time’s Joe Klein that an “Apollo project” for a “new energy economy” is his top priority:
That’s going to be my No. 1 priority when I get into office.
In Tuesday’s victory speech before a crowd of 125,000 in Chicago’s Grant Park, Obama indicated that listening to all people of this nation will be central to his administration:
There are many who won’t agree with every decision or policy I make as President, and we know that government can’t solve every problem. But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face. I will listen to you, especially when we disagree. And above all, I will ask you join in the work of remaking this nation the only way its been done in America for two-hundred and twenty-one years – block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand.In the 75 days before Obama takes office, he will also have to weigh in on major events already on the calendar:
Green Stimulus. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) today announced she hopes to work with the lame-duck Senate and White House to pass a green recovery stimulus bill before the end of the year, including funding for infrastructure projects “in a way that reduces our dependence on foreign oil, creates good green jobs in America.” On the campaign trail, Obama proposed a $190 billion stimulus package that includes green infrastructure and jobs.International Action. From December 1 to 12, the next round of international climate negotiations takes place in Poznań, Poland. Obama has pledged to send a team of representatives, in what may be his first major act as President-elect on the international stage.
New Perspectives for the Transatlantic Climate Dialogue
SAIS German Club and Heinrich Böll Stiftung North America: Reinhard Bütifoker, chairman and spokesperson of the German Green Party, will discuss this topic. Refreshments will be served.
Johns Hopkins University Room 812 Rome Building 1619 Massachusetts Ave., N.W. Washington, D.C.
For more information and to RSVP, contact sais.germanclub@gmail.com.
Women, Nuclear Energy and Justice in a Warming World
Join us for this public event where women Nobel Peace Laureates and co-founders of the Nobel Women’s Initiative, Wangari Maathai and Jody Williams, will discuss their vision of ‘climate justice’ – an approach to climate change that recognizes differential responsibilities for developed and developing countries, and puts the rights of people, especially women, at the center of the climate debate. Pat Mitchell, President of The Paley Center for Media and the former President and CEO of Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), will moderate.
- Wangari Maathai, founder of the Green Belt Movement, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace.
- Jody Williams, founding coordinator of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, was awarded the Prize in 1997 for her work in creating an international treaty to ban landmines.
Location: Carnegie Institution of Washington
1530 P ST. NW
Washington, D.C. 20035
Climate Change, Global Poverty and U.S. Foreign Policy
How other nations adapt to the impacts of climate change will affect critical U.S. security, economic, humanitarian, and environmental interests.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, developing countries face water scarcity, severe weather events, declining agricultural productivity, and increased disease. The consequences will undermine international stability and security as migration and refugee crises, conflicts linked to natural resource scarcity, and economic destabilization all increase.
In order to protect vital U.S. interests, and to promote global economic development, many advocates and governments are urging that the United States and other developed countries assist developing countries so they can adapt to the climate challenge. These issues have recently risen to the forefront both in international negotiations and in Congressional legislation.
Oxfam America and the UN Foundation invite you to a roundtable discussion with foreign policy experts, economists, scientists, non-governmental organizations, and Congressional staff to discuss these critical issues.
Presenters- Nigel Purvis (moderator), Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans, Environment & Science and senior U.S. climate change negotiator; Visiting scholar at Resources for the Future and non-resident scholar at The Brookings Institution
- Dr. Saleem Huq, Director of the Climate Change Group, International Institute for Environment and Development; Coordinating Lead Author of the Adaptation and Mitigation chapter in the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
- Ambassador Angus Friday, Permanent Representative of Grenada to the United Nations; Chair of the Alliance of Small Island States
- Dr. William Cline, Senior Fellow, Center for Global Development and the Institute for International Economics
- Dr. Sharon Hrynkow, Associate Director, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
This event is in cooperation with the office of Congressman Donald Payne.
Please RSVP to Mike Helms at Oxfam America at (202) 471-3050 or mhelms@oxfamamerica.org
or Erica Fabo at the UN Foundation at 202-887-9040.
Transatlantic Conference on Climate Change and Energy
The Washington Conference will take place over two days. The first day will be an intensive expert workshop focusing on emissions from transport and biofuels use; this reflects concerns over the lack of action to address emissions from transport, rising concerns about expanded use of biofuels and pressure from some to include aviation, marine transport and road transport within cap and trade systems.
Day two will be a larger event designed to inform civil society more broadly about the differences and similarities between action in the EU and US, discuss best practice domestic solutions, demystify key policies such as the EU ETS etc. Discussions will predominantly focus on cap and trade, and the differing perceptions of actors on both sides of the Atlantic.
IEEP will be taking experts from the EU over to Washington for the event. European experts would take part in the workshop on day one, and potentially present ideas and concepts from a European perspective on day two.
If you would like to find out more about the conference please contact Sirini Withana (IEEP) or Melanie Nakagawa (NRDC).
For more information and background papers from previous T-PAGE discussions, visit the T-PAGE project website.
Location: 1616 P Street, NW, 1st Floor Conference Room
Resources for the Future building
Washington, DC 20036
Surface transportation and the global economy
- Siva Yam, President, United States of America-China Chamber of Commerce
- John Isbell, Global Director of Delivery Logistics, Nike
- Ray Kuntz, Chief Executive Officer, Watkins and Shepard Trucking, On behalf of the American Trucking Associations
- Edward Wytkind, President, Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO
Climate Change as a Security Risk
The German Advisory Council on Global Change (BGU) is hosting a Congressional briefing on Climate Change as a Security Risk that will examine how climate change may overstretch many societies’ adaptive capacities, resulting in destabilization and violence and jeopardizing national and international security. It will also discuss how climate change efforts could unite the international community if it recognizes global warming as a threat to humankind and adopts a dynamic and globally coordinated climate policy. The briefing will be held on Tuesday, April 1, from 3:00-4:30 p.m. in Room 2255 of the Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC. For more information contact Mario-Ingo Soos at wi-2@wash.diplo.de.
Bangkok Climate Change Talks
Three months after the landmark agreement on a road map towards strengthened international action on climate change reached in Bali, Indonesia, the next round of negotiations shifts to the neighboring country of Thailand and its capital, Bangkok. The talks are taking place between 31 March to 4 April 2008 at the United Nations Conference Centre (UNCC) of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).
The climate change talks in Bangkok will convene sessions of both the Ad hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention (first session) and the Ad hoc Working Group on further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol (first part of the fifth session), during which Parties need to advance the Bali Road Map agreed last December.
Parties agreed at Bali to formally launch negotiations on enabling the full, effective and sustained implementation of the Convention. These negotiations need to conclude in an agreed outcome by the end of 2009.
The challenge is to design a future agreement that will successfully halt the increase in global emissions within the next 10-15 years, dramatically cut back emissions by 2050, and do so in a way that is economically viable and politically equitable worldwide.
The Bangkok meeting of the Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention needs to map out how to tackle this enormous challenge and begin by establishing without delay a clear work programme for the next two years.
Concretely, Parties meeting in Bangkok will identify the areas that need to be further clarified as well as the issues where work needs to be done and in what order that should happen. They will also establish what input is needed from the UN at large, the business sector and others, and how this will be integrated into the overall work plan.
The issues that the new Working Group needs to address were clearly defined at Bali. In addition to the goal of achieving agreement on long-term global action, work on on-going issues such as deforestation and technology needs to be advanced.
The Kyoto Protocol AWG, mandated in 2005 to consider future commitments for Annex I Parties, will initiate the second step of its work programme; in particular, the analysis of possible means available to Annex I Parties to reach their emission reduction targets. It will provide an informal setting for input from experts and for Parties to present their views on the issues related to the different means, as well as on how to enhance their effectiveness and contribution to sustainable development. Issues under consideration include emissions trading and the project based mechanisms, land use, land-use change and forestry, greenhouse gases, sectors and source categories to be covered, and possible approaches targeting sectoral emissions. These themes will be addressed in an in-session thematic workshop.
For both groups, work will continue at the twenty-eighth session of the Subsidiary Bodies to be held in Bonn in June. After that, both groups will reconvene at a week-long intersessional meeting at the end of August before meeting again at the fourteenth session of the Conference of the Parties and the fourth session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol in Poland in December.
Investing in Sustainable Energy Options in Ukraine via the Kyoto Protocol
This webcasted panel discussion will examine opportunities for U.S. businesses and others to invest in energy efficient and renewable energy projects in Ukraine using the mechanisms of the Kyoto Protocol. The panelists will review opportunities for reducing energy waste in Ukraine’s major end-use energy sectors as well as the status and near-term potential for developing Ukraine’s solar, wind, biomass/biofuels, small hydro, geothermal, and coal-mine methane resources.
Panelists- Brian Castelli – Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Alliance to Save Energy
- John Palmisano – Chairman, IE3
- Rich Rosenzweig – Chief Operating Officer, Natsource
- Ken Bossong – Co-Director, Ukrainian-American Environmental Association
(biographical information on each of the four panelists follows below)
This event, being co-sponsored by the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation and The Washington Group, will be broadcast live on-line in English.
Persons planning to attend in person should arrive by 11:50 am
- (Ukrainian Time: 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm)
U.S.-Ukraine Foundation 1701 “K” Street NW Suite #903 Washington, DC 20006
TO SUBMIT QUESTIONS ON-LINE: Questions for the panelists can be e-mailed either in advance or during the discussion to ulyana@usukraine.org. Please type “Kyoto/Energy Panel” in the “subject” line.
TO REGISTER AND FOR MORE INFORMATION: For On-Site Attendance, RSVPs Required. Lunch will be served. Space is Limited.
RSVP by email to: ulyana@usukraine.org.
The presentation will be broadcast live online. To register to watch online, please visit this link and follow the instructions.
Speakers:
JOHN PALMISANO Chairman, IE3
Since 1976, Mr. Palmisano has:
- Created 3 emissions brokerage and 1 emissions trading businesses, including the first emissions brokerage firm, AER*X
- Advised the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on developing a “green” exchange
- Consulted to trade associations, the US EPA, the United Nations, the World Bank, US Congress, the Russian government, the Ukrainian government, the Canadian government and many US and international companies on both emissions trading matters and developing “green” energy projects and policies
- Helped create three “green” NGOs that focus on promoting emissions trading—one in Russia, one in Ukraine, and one in the United States
- Established emission brokerage offices and representatives in Moscow, Kiev, Hong Kong, London, and Washington DC
- Brokered more than 70 emission trades
- Served as an expert witness in public utility commission and legal proceedings
- Managed the air pollution control program in California for an engineering company
- Developed several major environmental policies while working at US EPA
Mr. Palmisano’s immersion into emissions trading began when he was a manager at the United States Environmental Protection Agency where he developed regulatory reforms dealing with air and water pollution control. He received U.S. EPA’s Gold Medal for his work on emissions trading.
////////////////////////////////
BRIAN CASTELLI Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Alliance to Save Energy
Brian T. Castelli is the executive vice president and chief operating officer of the Alliance to Save Energy. He has 30 years of national and international experience in the energy field, including expertise in energy efficiency, renewables, emission reductions, and electricity demand reduction.
Prior to joining the Alliance in July 2005, Castelli ran his own energy consulting firm. There he was the federal energy liaison for the California Energy Commission; a principal with the Center for Energy and Climate Solutions, and a consultant to both the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and the National Association of State Energy Officials (NASEO).
As a presidential appointee, Castelli served as chief of staff to the U.S. Department of Energy’s assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy from 1994 to 2001. He managed 550 staff and more than $1 billion in programs and research, development, and deployment initiatives and directed the development and implementation of energy policies and programs.
Castelli also led and participated in missions to Western Hemisphere, European, and former Soviet Union countries and was also deeply involved in developing energy-efficiency measures for the eventual closure of the nuclear reactors in Chornobyl, Ukraine.
Prior to DOE, Castelli was appointed in 1988 by Gov. Bob Casey to the Pennsylvania Energy Office (PEO), for three years as deputy director for administration and public affairs and then as executive director, through 1994. As executive director he ran the commonwealth’s energy policies and programs, managed the state energy office and the Pennsylvania Energy Development Authority, and took the lead on responding to energy emergencies.
Notably, he developed a revolving loan fund for energy-efficiency measures and a “Green Buildings” program for cutting energy use and costs in all commonwealth-owned or operated buildings, and he drafted legislation for and implemented an alternative fuel program.
Earlier in his career, Castelli was vice president of finance for The National Center for Appropriate Technology; senior vice president and cofounder of CEXEC; and financial analyst with the Federal Energy Administration. He has authored many articles, studies, and reports on energy-related issues, served on various boards of directors, and made presentations in many state, national, and international forums and conferences.
Castelli holds two degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, a bachelor of science in chemical engineering and an MBA in industrial/environmental management from the university’s Wharton School.
////////////////////////////////
RICH ROSENZWEIG Chief Operating Officer, Natsource
Richard Rosenzweig, Chief Operating Officer of Natsource (Washington, DC), is responsible for the company’s global Advisory Services and Research business unit. He provides services to private firms, investment funds, governments, and international financial institutions on all aspects of climate change and renewable energy, including risk assessment and management, market entry strategies, trading system design, domestic policy development and international negotiations. Mr. Rosenzweig has extensive experience in all aspects of emissions trading and risk management. He represented several companies in the design of the U.S. Acid Rain and NOx SIP Call Programs. Mr. Rosenzweig was involved in the first transaction of UK and Danish greenhouse gas allowances. He joined Natsource from the Washington law firm of Van Ness Feldman, where he was Principal.
Mr. Rosenzweig served as Chief of Staff to the Secretary of Energy at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) from 1993-1996. His national policy responsibilities included the development and coordination of DOE strategy related to global climate change. He played key roles in developing the Clinton Administration’s Climate Change Action Plan, which incorporated the first project-based mechanism to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and the Secretary of Energy’s international energy, environmental, and national security initiatives. He also helped to negotiate voluntary agreements between DOE and more than 600 electric utilities to achieve voluntary greenhouse gas reductions in the “Climate Challenge” program. Mr. Rosenzweig has written extensively on the greenhouse gas market, the impacts of trading system design, and the role of technology in addressing climate change. He has a BA degree from Northeastern University and an MS degree from American University in Political Science.
////////////////////////////////
KEN BOSSONG Co-Director, Ukrainian-American Environmental Association
A former volunteer in Ukraine with the U.S. Peace Corps (February 2000 – January 2003), Ken Bossong presently serves as the coordinator of the Sustainable Energy Coalition, a U.S. NGO comprised of 50+ U.S. business, environmental, consumer, and energy policy organizations promoting energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies.
Over the past 35 years he has served as the director of several national U.S. environmental NGOs as well as worked as a member of several organizations working on Ukrainian issues. He has degrees in law, public administration, and environmental engineering.
Most recently he was a short-term scholar at the Kennan Institute of the Woodrow Wilson Center where he conducted research on sustainable energy policies and options for Ukraine.
////////////////////////////////
Major Financial Program Support provided by:
Chopivsky Family Foundation Dmytro & Jaroslava Jarosewycz Memorial Charitable Gift Fund Heritage Foundation of First Security Federal Savings Bank (Chicago, IL) The Maria Hulai Lion Foundaton Self Reliance (NY) Federal Credit Union (New York City) Selfreliance Ukrainian American Federal Credit Union (Chicago, IL) Sutaruk Foundation
Individuals: Leonard & Helena Mazur Marta Pereyma Murray Senkus Stefan & Wolodymyra Slywotzky