- This amazingly clever and well-done campaign is worth seeing how to adapt it to your city. At a talk last night by the head of our city’s Solid Waste, Regina Wheeler explained Santa Fe’s goal of zero waste and said how difficult it was to do the “Reduce” part of the famous “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle”- ie. getting people to stop consuming so much. Having highly visible goals and an aggressive inclusive campaign are a good start! Watch the inspiring, well-done video. - Editor

Vancouver’s Innovative Talk Green to Us Campaign
Vancouver has adopted a set of bold and inspiring goals for the long term. They will require harnessing our city’s greatest resources—people, businesses, organizations, schools, and institutions. We won’t get to perfection by 2020, but we’ll start on the path to global green leadership.
We invite you to be a part of this historic transformation. Help us find the solutions to creating a prosperous and sustainable economy, a healthier planet, and happier people. What would you do to make Vancouver the greenest city in the world? Among all of the great green ideas out there, which would you pursue first? Help us prioritize between blue-sky visions and immediate opportunities. Give us your pet ideas and your audacious possibilities. Please provide your input and vote on the ideas that you think will work best before October 7, 2010. 
http://www.talkgreentous.ca/about.php
http://www.talkgreentous.ca/index.php

Green Economy
Climate Leadership
Green Buildings
Green Transportation
Zero Waste
Access to Nature
Lighter Footprint
Clean Water
Clean Air
Local Food
http://www.talkgreentous.ca/goals.php0

QUOTE
“Making Vancouver the greenest city in the world will
require harnessing the city’s greatest resources—its
people, businesses, NGOs, schools, and institutions.
All hands on deck are needed to help achieve the
transformation into a one-planet city.

By sparking a global competition for the title of
Greenest City, we hope to inspire not only Vancouverites
but also the citizens and governments of cities
around the world to join our efforts.”
http://vancouver.ca/greenestcity/PDF/Vancouver2020-ABrightGreenFuture.pdf

“You cannot imagine the pressure we suffered that first year. Politicians must take tough decisions.”
Manuel Pinho, Portugal’s minister of economy and innovation from 2005 until last year,
 who largely masterminded the transition

- Yes! Making the right decisions can be tough but so very necessary! We all must support politicians who are determined to make tough but right decisions. The goals being set now in the U.S. are far too timid- even non-existent.- Editor
 

Portugal Rocks Renewables: 45% Renewable Electricity by Year’s End
For the past 5 years Portugal has been pushing a dramatic shift to renewable energy. Compared to the standard “20% renewables by 2020” targets that are often brought out at press conferences, its accomplishments are impressive: By the end of the year nearly 45% of its electricity will come from renewable sources. That’s up from 17% five years ago.

If you think of it as a recipe, there are three key ingredients of Portugal’s success:
• 1 part opening up of the energy sector to market forces (including the privatization of energy utilities)
• 1 part technological modernization (in particular the creation of a smart-grid able to handle diverse sources of renewable energy), and
• 2 parts savvy country-wide energy policy (including guaranteed rates for renewables, and the EU Carbon Trading System).

Photo- wind farm in Portugal
http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/011498.html

-  Cutting funding for renewable energy by more than half while the Senate voted against proposed cuts to oil and gas subsidies verges on insanity. Doesn’t anyone in D.C. have children? - Editor

To help pay for the aid bill, lawmakers cut $1.5 billion from the Department of Energy’s renewable energy loan guarantee program. It’s the second time in roughly a year that Congress has raided the program to fund other priorities. Last summer, lawmakers cut $2 billion from the Dept. of Energy’s renewable energy loan account to extend the highly popular Cash for Clunkers program. Congress has not repaid the agency that $2 billion, despite frequent promises. Taken together, the cuts have whittled the program’s budget down to $2.5 billion, less than half the $6 billion Congress appropriated in early 2009.
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2010/08/11/renewable-energy-backers-wince-as-congress-raids-doe-coffers/

- The many government leaders who read Climate Today may want to read this report for its analysis of policy effectiveness. - Editor

Feed-in tariffs responsible for 75% of solar deployment
The lure of feed-in tariffs (FITs) has been responsible for around 75% of solar photovoltaic (PV) deployment around the world and 45% of wind power, according to a study by the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). FITs are the most widely used renewable energy policy, in operation in over 75 countries, outweighing both tax incentives and renewable portfolio standard (RPS) policies. But the widespread introduction of European-style FITs in the US is hampered by the Federal Power Act (FPA) and the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA), which would require an investigation and specific rulemaking or declaratory order. Alternatively, Congress could take action and had the Waxman-Markey climate bill – the 2009 American Clean Energy and Security Act – been passed this would have clarified a number of the issues. NREL’s guide provides a complete overview of the policy options for FITs, and the key elements that US states should consider if introducing FITs.
For the report: www.nrel.gov/docs/fy10osti/44849.pdf
http://www.energyefficiencynews.com/power-generation/i/3302/

The Senate has decided that we won’t get a comprehensive climate and clean energy bill before the August recess — which most observers interpret as a death-knell for the legislation this year. This failure would be hard to understand at any time, to say the least. But coming as it does in the middle of a record-hot summer and a series of environmental disasters, Washington’s abandonment of this effort is all the more confounding and frustrating.

However, this setback only makes our work more necessary. As long as we care about our country, our planet, and the future we’re leaving for our children and grandchildren, we must continue to fight.

Remember: The climate crisis isn’t going away. And neither can we. It is getting worse, so we have to redouble our efforts.  I’d like to invite you to join me next Tuesday, August 10, for a conversation to discuss how we should move forward from here. I’ll be answering some questions from Repower America members like you — so please submit a question for discussion.

“Next Steps for the Climate Movement”
Virtual Town Hall
Tuesday, August 10 at 8:30 p.m. EDT
RSVP to join and submit your question
http://acp.repoweramerica.org/jointhecall

Global subsidies for fossil fuels dwarf support given to renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power and biofuels, Bloomberg New Energy Finance said. Governments last year gave $43 billion to $46 billion of support to renewable energy through tax credits, guaranteed electricity prices known as feed-in tariffs and alternative energy credits. That compares with the $557 billion that the International Energy Agency last month said was spent to subsidize fossil fuels in 2008. “One of the reasons the clean energy sector is starved of funding is because mainstream investors worry that renewable energy only works with direct government support,” said Michael Liebreich, chief executive of New Energy Finance. “This analysis shows that the global direct subsidy for fossil fuels is around ten times the subsidy for renewables.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-29/fossil-fuel-subsidies-are-12-times-support-for-renewables-study-shows.html

The Partner jurisdictions of the Western Climate Initiative (WCI) today released a comprehensive strategy designed to reduce climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), stimulate development of clean-energy technologies, create green jobs, increase energy security and independence, and protect public health. he Design for the WCI Regional Program is the culmination of two years of work by seven U.S. states and four Canadian provinces. Supported by their jurisdictional goals, the objective of the WCI Partner jurisdictions’ plan is to reduce regional GHG emissions to 15 percent below 2005 levels by 2020.
For the Program Release Statement- http://westernclimateinitiative.org/component/remository/general/program-design/Program-Design-Release-Statement/
http://www.westernclimateinitiative.org/news-and-updates/121-wci-partners-release-their-comprehensive-strategy-to-address-climate-change-and-spur-a-clean-energy-economy

- While some are very depressed over the Senate’s failure, a minority longing for real action hope that this will open the door to a new approach that is free of the heavily biased giveaways in this bill. Let’s all unite on a simple carbon tax, an end to petroleum subsidies, and support for renewables and efficiency.  We are dreamers but we’re “not the only ones.”- Editor
We’re Gonna Be Sorry By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Senate Democrats abandoned the effort to pass an energy/climate bill that would begin to cap greenhouse gases that cause global warming and promote renewable energy that could diminish our addiction to oil. I could blame Republicans for the fact that not one G.O.P. senator indicated a willingness to vote for a bill that would put the slightest price on carbon. I could blame the Democratic senators who were also waffling. I could blame President Obama for his disappearing act on energy and spending more time reading the polls than changing the polls. I could blame the Chamber of Commerce and the fossil-fuel lobby for spending bags of money to subvert this bill. But the truth is, the public, confused and stressed by the last two years, never got mobilized to press for this legislation. We will regret it.
We’ve basically decided to keep pumping greenhouse gases into Mother Nature’s operating system and take our chances that the results will be benign - even though a vast majority of scientists warn that this will not be so. Fasten your seat belts. As the environmentalist Rob Watson likes to say: “Mother Nature is just chemistry, biology and physics. That’s all she is.” You cannot sweet-talk her. You cannot spin her. You cannot tell her that the oil companies say climate change is a hoax. No, Mother Nature is going to do whatever chemistry, biology and physics dictate, and “Mother Nature always bats last, and she always bats 1.000,” says Watson. Do not mess with Mother Nature. But that is just what we’re doing.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/opinion/25friedman.html