Climate and Clean Air

Posted on May 30, 2012 by lathamsa

“Stockholm+40 and the Climate and Clean Air Coalition”

Los Angeles, in the United States, has had a serious smog problem since the 1940s.

“Sustainable Development has been marked by three milestones. These are the 1972 Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment, which was the first UN conference to address environmental challenges; the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro; and the 2002 World Summit for Sustainable Development in Johannesburg. “

Last month, I joined ministers and stakeholders in Stockholm, Sweden, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the UN Conference on the Human Environment as a youth representative. The conference brought together actors from the international community for a dialogue on sustainable development. Businesspeople, civil society representatives, researchers, and young people discussed topics on sustainable living, innovation, and production.

The meeting aimed to provide recommendations on developing partnerships for sustainable development, and transitioning to an inclusive green economy. I had the opportunity to participate in a dialogue with the ministers that were present on the last day of the conference. The points raised at the dialogue included the need to redesign economics and attitudes about sustainability, incorporating human rights in sustainable development, the need for new metrics for sustainable development, and the importance of involving youth in the decision-making process.

In my role as a youth representative, I expressed the need of forming partnerships between different actors to promote innovative solutions for sustainable lifestyles. For example, social media has changed the way people learn about topics such as health, politics, and sustainable development. Consequently, it is important to consider how to use it to engage younger generations in the sustainable development debate.

Additionally, I invited the UNEP delegation and the ministers to make the effort to include youth representatives with the power to vote in national delegations, and at UN high level meetings by asserting that “We can do more than listen. Governments should provide us with opportunities that enable our real contribution.”

Along with the environmental conference Stockholm+40, other important events related to sustainable development took place, such as the first meeting of the Climate and Clean Air Coalition.

Climate and Clean Air Coalition

The Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) was launched in February 2012 by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and representatives from Bangladesh, Canada, Ghana, Mexico, Sweden, and UNEP.

The coalition aims to reduce the amount of short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs) such as methane, soot, and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), in our atmosphere. These are responsible for close to 40 percent of current global warming. Short-lived pollutants not only increase the amount of greenhouse gases in out atmosphere, but they also threaten the health of women and children all over the world. The World Health Organization estimates that pollution related to black carbon is responsible for more than three million premature deaths each year. Additionally, more than 30 million tons of crops are damaged because of these pollutants.

Todd Stern, U.S. Special Envoy for Climate Change, announced at Stockholm +40 that CCAC had gained new partners. Colombia, Japan, Nigeria, Norway, and the European Commission committed to join the coalition. Additionally, the members agreed on a plan of action that includes five priorities:

1. Working with companies to reduce methane leakages from oil and gas production.
2. Decreasing “black carbon” by improving transportation systems.
3. Developing alternatives to HFCs.
4. Eliminating open burning practices in agriculture.
5. Promoting clean cook stoves in developing countries to diminish respiratory diseases.

Promoting Coalitions for Sustainable Development

Sustainable Development is a shared responsibility between governments, NGOs, businesses, and young people. Events like Stockholm+40 provide space for engaging all stakeholders, which is crucial for promoting solutions that protect our human environment. Additionally, they serve as a barometer for policymakers, to enable them to reaffirm or redefine their priorities when it comes to sustainable development.
Coalitions like CCAC are also necessary for strengthening programs to tackle climate change such as the Global Methane Initiative, and the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves. Reducing short-live pollutants poses fewer political barriers than limiting carbon dioxide. We already have the technology and the policies to substantially reduce these pollutants. Additionally, the benefits of reducing these pollutants will be seen immediately, particularly in developing countries.

The Stockholm +40 conference and the CCAC both represent tangible steps toward progress in developing and refining initiatives and policies that will work to improve our environment.

“Youth are those with more dreams than memories, which is why they are the leaders of the revolution for sustainable development” – Maurice Strong, UNEP’s first Executive Director

at the closing ceremony for Stockholm+40.

This post was written by Olimar Maisonet-Guzman. You can get links to her other posts here.

Ascha, Germany: A small village with a big vision

Posted on May 25, 2012 by lathamsa

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” width=”424″ height=”160″ />Twenty years ago Germany had passed a law to provide limited support for the small-scale production of renewable energy. At the same time, Wolfgang Zirngibl, the Mayor of Ascha, a village of 1,500 near the Czech border, saw an opportunity to change his community. Ascha had very few businesses of its own, and most of its residents commuted to their jobs elsewhere. The community did have a number of farmers, and the village is surrounded by agricultural fields and forests. As Germany goes, Ascha is also quite sunny. Taking advantage of the new renewable energy law, Mayor Zirngibl and his supporters laid out a plan for his community to begin producing some of its electricity and heat using renewable energy and local resources. The final goal would be to create an energy-independent community. This initiative was based on four pillars: 1. Renewable energy is environmentally friendly; 2. Ascha has sufficient renewable resources; 3. Renewables are likely to be less expensive over the long run; and 4. Investments in renewable energy will keep more economic value in the community and the region.

Ascha, Germany (Courtesy Photo)

Progress toward the village’s final objective of becoming a net energy producer has been steady over time and is quickly coming to fruition. As of 2011, solar panels, a small hydropower plant, and a biogas-fueled turbine together produced over 120% of the community’s electricity needs. With the installation of district heating, the village also covers over 50% of its heating needs using renewable energy. To limit the amount of energy needed to reach these goals, the community started by reducing energy demand and by investing in the improvement of the energy

performance of its houses and buildings. By increasing the energy efficiency of the structures and by changing consumption patterns, less heat and electricity is needed in each household. In addition to decreasing the amount of energy needed to meet its renewable energy objective, these investments have two other features: they have lowered the monthly heating and electricity bills of residents and much of the work has been done by local contractors. The renewable energy facilities have had a similar employment effect.

Beyond the employment effects and the lowered energy costs, investing in renewable energy in Ascha has created a class of energy “prosumers”. Prosumers are producers and consumers of energy. While the ownership structure of each renewable facility in Ascha is different, each is owned by one or more residents of the village or by the village administration itself – from which all citizens benefit. The German people’s continued support for renewable energy policies can be traced, in part, to the fact that over 20% of German households have ownership stakes in renewable energy producing facilities – be they solar panels, wind mills, biogas plants, etc. This democratization of the production of energy has opened similar opportunities to households, villages, cities, and towns across Germany. Ascha is but one example of the ways that Germans are using renewable energy to forge a more sustainable future.

Dominic Marcellino

This post was written by Dominic Marcellino. He has been a Fellow at Ecologic Institute in Washington, DC since the fall of 2008. His work focuses primarily on energy policy (including bioenergy, energy efficiency, renewable energy, and transportation), climate change policy in Europe and the US, as well as emissions trading systems. He regularly leads transatlantic study tours and exchanges for American and European policymakers and stakeholders. In 2008-09, he spent eleven months living and working in Germany as a Robert Bosch Fellow.

Mountains, Freshwater Resources and Climate Change

Posted on May 16, 2012 by lathamsa

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px-Alpamayo.jpg”> Alpamayo, a peak in the Cordillera Blanca mountain range of the Peruvian Andes. (Wikimedia/RedWolf)

Alpamayo, a peak in the Cordillera Blanca mountain range of the Peruvian Andes. (Wikimedia/RedWolf)

About half of the world’s freshwater resources come from precipitation (rain and snow) in mountainous regions. Whereas the impacts of climate change on the stability of mountain glaciers and year-to-year reliability of snowpacks have received much attention, understanding how climate change will impact monsoon rainfall that is actually the dominant freshwater source on mountain slopes and adjacent lowlands in the tropics and subtropics remains a challenge.

With worldwide distribution and strong environmental and climatic gradients, mountains are elevated observatories where the impacts of climate variability and change can be first detected. Yet, mountainous regions remain among the least observed regions in the planet.

In the Fall of 2011, a science-grade network of 10m towers was placed at high elevations (1,400 to 4,000 m) to measure above-canopy precipitation on the envelope orography of the Central Andes, more precisely in the Kospiñata river valley in the vicinity of Parque Nacional del Manu a collaborative project funded by the Nacional Science Foundation including Duke University, Wake Forest University, and the University of Cusco in Peru. These stations are to be the core of an observing system to understand cloud forest and wet puna hydrometeorology, and in particular climate controls of fog-cloud-rainfall interactions. It is expected

that such observations will also provide valuable ground validation data to improve the performance of satellite-based rainfall estimation algorithms (e.g. NASA’s upcoming Global Precipitation Measurement mission) in the region and elsewhere. Ultimately, satellite-based observing systems are the realistic path toward achieving high density continuous observations of mountain precipitation at global and regional scales.

The diurnal cycle of rainfall (e.g. where it rains, how much it rains, how fast it rains, how long it rains, and at what time of day) varies greatly from one mountain region to another, and in the same region it can vary greatly with elevation and landform. For example, a comparison among observations on the envelope orography of the central Andes and the central Himalayas indicate that whereas the wet season (monsoon) rainfall totals are about the same, rainfall amounts peak in the early afternoon whereas rainfall intensity peaks in the evening at low and high elevations in the Central Andes, but rainfall amounts and intensity peak during in the evening and very early morning in the southern facing slopes of the central Himalayas at all elevations below the treeline. Interestingly, despite their location in the cloud forest, recent observations from the Peru show that rainfall intensities exceeding 100 mm/hr are not uncommon at roughly 2,700 m elevations, where rates as high as 200 mm/hr were measured a high elevation valley location. These high rainfall rates are associated with landslide activity and debris flows that can cause much landscape damage and loss of life.

Rainfall intensity as a discriminant of rainfall regime is critical for assessing the sustainability of freshwater resources in mountainous regions. Light rainfall is dominant at high elevations in cloud forests and wet grasslands in the Andes. Although light rainfall is expected to decrease due to changes in fog and low level cloud regimes, lower relative humidity and higher low level temperatures in the troposphere, morning light rainfall is likely to be more sustainable than afternoon light rainfall depending on how changes in temperature are reflected in the diurnal cycles of temperature in a warmer climate. Changes in fog and rainfall intensity affect canopy harvesting of fog and interception of rainfall on the one hand, and infiltration and soil moisture. Lower surface soil moisture leads to increased soil and boundary layer temperatures, in a positive feedback loop, that would tend to further increase surface layer temperatures and the dryness of upper soil layers, thus affecting understory and forest floor vegetation at first, and consequently albedo and surface temperature, depleting soil moisture from the root zones, ultimately altering runoff production mechanisms and groundwater recharge, and streamflow regimes. On the other hand, if heavy rainfalls were to increase in frequency or in intensity with climate change, this would have major implications for hillslope stability and overall ecosystem resilience besides the human social and economic toll on mountain populations. Vegetation disturbances caused by landslides for example can facilitate the progression of invasive species, and threaten the biodiversity of mountain ecosystems.

This blog post was written by Ana P. Barros of Duke University and the Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas.

Planning, Participation and Sustainable Cities

Posted on May 14, 2012 by lathamsa

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“1000″ height=”1000″ />Sustainability has many definitions and provokes a wide range of concepts and approaches. In many aspects sustainability has been overused and lacks the clarity needed to fully understand what it means for a particular place. In my experience stemming from years of hands-on planning in communities of all sizes and locations, one lesson is that one size does not fit all in terms of sustainability solutions. Anyone concerned about a brighter future for the next generation across the globe will promote a tailored, custom solution to the unique needs and situations faced by the range of communities and cultures. In order for the concept to have meaning, it needs to be tied to measures that reflect where we are and whether what we do is making us more or less sustainable.

Patterns of human development – physical, social, and economic – affect sustainability at the local and the global level. City and regional planning helps define how, where, and when human settlement occurs. The location of urban development and the choices for reusing and adapting cities make a huge difference in resource consumption. Planners can play a crucial role in improving the sustainability of communities and the resources that support them.

Sustainability, seen broadly, should address three main goals, commonly referred to as the “three Es”: Environment, Equity, and Economy. The most sustainable policies and implementation practices will be the ones that simultaneously advance all three goals. For me sustainability is a value-based effort to achieve what is right for society, or in any given community. My organization, The American Planning Association (APA) just held its 104th annual conference in Los Angeles and to kick it off, we cosponsored a Youth Forum on Sustainable Cities in cooperation with our Chinese partners. It is critical that we reach out to young people from all disciplines and all countries to engage them in the process of shaping the future. Too many times, their voices are not at the table when decisions are made yet their generation will be most affected.

ECPA Fellow Jeff Soule getting local perspectives in Rio De Janeiro with meetings in the neighborhoods. (Courtesy Photo)

Widespread urbanization in both the U.S. and around the world is one of the most significant demographic trends seen today. Fortunately, it is also one of the most sustainable trends. Populations in urbanizing areas experience lower birth rates, higher educational attainments, and smaller carbon footprints. In other words, urbanization is at the core of sustainability. Yet for the benefits of urbanization to be realized, there are things we need to do better.

1 Improve citizen involvement. We must engage each other in the discussion of the choices we have based on knowledge and information sharing. Planners are especially trained to help citizens become more informed and engaged in shaping a more sustainable future. In many places, citizens do not have a direct voice in development decisions and resource allocation and participatory governance a new concept that needs our support.

2 Plan according to Nature. Look at the regional picture and protect sensitive areas from urbanization. Much of today’s urbanization is occurring in areas of high risk for natural disasters: coastal and delta regions, earthquake and tsunami prone areas and places susceptible to sea level rise. Planning for hazard mitigation and avoidance is a critical effort that is often overlooked. We must not continue to place people in harm’s way through lack of planning.

3 Respect and learn from traditional patterns and techniques. Today the world is more interconnected than ever and we can recognize and value cultural differences and approaches to creating places. In many cases, historical building styles and materials embody the essence of low energy and sustainability. Equating high technology with modernity is a concept that needs to be questioned as we examine and respect the traditional settlements, designs and cultures that can inform our options.

This guest blog was written by Jeff Soule of the Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas (ECPA).

Olimar Maisonet-Guzman (Courtesy Photo)

Olimar Maisonet-Guzman is a 2011 Boren Fellow to Brazil and a member of the SustainUS Youth Delegation that will participate in the Rio+20 Earth Summit. She is currently in Brazil studying water and energy policy, with a particular focus on hydropower development. She is interested in the social impacts of development and economic policies, particularly in Latin America and Asia. She also serves as a Rio+20 taskforce member for the UN CSD Major Group of Children and Youth.

Olimar is a self-proclaimed jet setter, and in her spare time she enjoys fencing. Read her guest blog here!

Brazil will be the host of the 2012 Earth Summit (Rio+20).

In June of 2012, world leaders, civil society representatives and young people will meet in Rio de Janeiro to determine the future of sustainable development. The UN Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development, better known as the Earth Summit, will seek to renew political commitment for sustainable development, and to assess the progress of past Earth Summits.

Why is Rio+20 important to me? Besides the two main themes of the conference: poverty eradication and the green economy, other complex issues will be discussed at the summit. One of my favorite topics, the water-energy-food security nexus will be a central part of these discussions. So, what is this nexus?

For me, one of today’s main challenges is providing clean water, food, and electricity to a growing population. The water-energy-food security nexus proposes an integrated understanding of natural resources and the improvement of policy coordination across these sectors. Land and water are needed to grow food. Energy is also needed to process and distribute food to us, the consumers. Water is needed for the production of electricity, so we can cook our meals. This is especially true for Latin America, where most of the electricity comes from hydropower.

The expected population growth for Latin America is close to one percent by 2030. Most of this growth will happen in urban centers. For Sao Paulo, one of Latin America’s most crowded cities, annual growth rate is estimated at four percent. Inevitably, population growth in cities will increase the demand for energy, water and food. However, if not managed carefully, these demands will have damaging ecological impacts in the Amazon region, Latin America’s most important source of food, energy and biodiversity.

A complex challenge requires creative and inter-disciplinary solutions. New policies such as “integrated-management of water, energy and agriculture” will facilitate solutions that promote a better quality of life for future generations. Rio+20 will provide leaders and stakeholders the opportunity to create policy frameworks that incorporate the nexus approach in our sustainability discourse. However, leaders still need to know why issues such as the nexus are important to us. We as future generations will carry the consequences of their policy decisions.

Why is Youth important? Why are YOU important?

The participation of all stakeholders is necessary to make Rio+20 a successful event. More than half of the world’s population is under 25 years old and young people are the most vulnerable to water, energy, economic and climate crises. Consequently, it is important that our voice is included in the Rio+20 debates, either in the form of official youth delegates or through youth consultations.

Internationally, the UN Major Group of Children and Youth seeks to facilitate youth efforts and participation within the Rio+20 and other major UN processes. In the United States, SustainUS, is preparing a delegation of energetic young individuals to participate in the Rio+20 events. In Brazil, Rede da Juventude pelo Meio Ambiente e Sustentabilidade, is also preparing a youth delegation to take part of the Earth Summit.

It is not too late to take action. During the upcoming months, regional and intersessional preparatory meetings will take place around the globe to discuss the potential outcomes of the Earth Summit. There will be opportunities for the youth voices to be heard. To learn more about these opportunities and share information about the upcoming UN Conference on Sustainable Development, join the Rio+20 Youth Space: http://www.youthcaucus.net/rioplus20. Feel free to contact me if you want to know how to take a more active role.

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Category Archives: Sustainable Development

Climate and Clean Air

Ascha, Germany: A small village with a big vision

Mountains, Freshwater Resources and Climate Change

Planning, Participation and Sustainable Cities

Exploring Sustainability

Sustainable Cities

Youth Action

Videos: Greening the Dutch Embassy

Why Youth Are So Important to the Environment