“Asian Nations Could Outpace U.S. in Developing Clean Energy” – The Washington Post, Jul 7, 2009
“Obama Says U.S. Must Win Clean-Energy Race” – The Los Angeles Times, Oct 24, 2009
“China surges ahead of U.S. in clean energy race” – The Hindu, Mar 26, 2010
“China leads world in clean energy investment” – The People’s Daily Online, Mar 29, 2010

The Great Power Race (GPR) is a clean energy competition between universities and other college/school campuses in India, China and the US. The aim is to kick-start hundreds of new climate solution projects on campuses and in communities in all three countries and to demonstrate to governments and businesses our generation’s leadership in transforming our world towards a green economy. 

From installing compost pits to solar panels to changing light bulbs to growing local food, campus teams are encouraged and trained to take up various projects that reduce their dependence on dirty fossil fuel and emit less greenhouse gases. The competition is a one of its kind where teams will be allowed to communicate with each other across nations and share best practices thereby learning and understanding the differences and challenges of executing clean energy projects.

The Indian Youth Climate Network, Chinese youth climate action network, Energy action coalition and 350.org are the main organizers of the competition in the three countries. The competition is in 4 phases and will last till April 2011. Phase I ends by June 30th and the race is on for the maximum registrations from countries. Phase II involves training and execution of projects with the winners being declared in Cancun, Mexico during COP16 and the final two phases will accept more registrations and the winners will be declared in mid 2011. Eminent personalities in the field of environment from all three countries will be chosen to judge the projects and an elaborate point system has been designed to evaluate projects across various criteria.

The Indian youth climate network, a registered society working on issues of climate change and sustainable development is the main organizer of GPR in India. With a wide network amongst youth in the country, IYCN aims at helping support multiple climate solution projects in India. 

Campus teams can register or follow the race at www.greatpowerrace.org or www.facebook.com/greatpowerrace and please help spread the word to your friends, family and the world.

Filed under: 350, Americas, Asia, global warming, Renewable Energy

Filed under: 350, global warming

Vermont’s abundant clean energy resources, from numerous micro-hydro sites to bountiful wind going untapped, make Vermont Yankee an unnecessary resource for the state. In order to renew Vermont’s economy, spur job creation in a state where young people are leaving in droves, and ensure Vermont’s status as a clean energy leader in the country, advocates are rallying round the 2010 governor’s election as an opportunity to point Vermont’s energy future in a new direction. Most importantly, we’re having a lot of fun while doing it!

All summer long, a crew of organizers from across Vermont will be working to push the candidates towards a bold clean energy plan, mobilize young clean energy voters to get out and vote, and raise the salience of clean energy in the election as a whole. While we’ve got an unlimited amount of people power, we do have a little bit of a shortage of dollar power, so it would be awesome if we could have the support of the youth climate movement to help guarantee Vermont is put on a path towards a clean energy future. Thanks!

Filed under: 350, Campuses, Economics, Efficiency, Events, global warming, Government, Politics, Polls, Power Vote, Renewable Energy, Visioning, Youth Leaders

Thanks to the actions of the Commonwealth Challenge participants and the courageous efforts of the Leadership Campaign, yesterday afternoon Chairman John Binienda indicated that he would have the conversations necessary to move our bill out of the Rules Committee in the House of Representatives. This is a critical step that would allow the bill to get a full hearing.

Earlier in the day, I was privileged to announce (dressed in Colonial brown) the accomplishments of the Commonwealth Challenge at the “Climate Courage Awards” in the Massachusetts State House:

“Hello. I am Paul Revere. 235 years ago in April, I rode across the Massachusetts countryside to mobilize patriots against an impending threat. Today, there is a threat even more daunting. Facing the worst unemployment since 1976 and a climate crisis threatening to wipe out countless species and millions of lives around the world, the people of Massachusetts have taken matters into their own hands.

In the last 48 days 40 volunteers have donated more than 100 hours to the Commonwealth Challenge. As of this morning, 350 patriots of the Commonwealth have taken the Challenge to audit and retrofit their homes to save energy. They have taken the first step toward 100% clean power in Massachusetts within 10 years and have sent us here with a message.

Today, on this 40th anniversary of Earth Day, we the people of Massachusetts set forth a challenge to the Massachusetts State Legislature to re-power the Commonwealth with 100% clean electricity by 2020. This action is needed to stem the tide of climate change before its forces become too great. But it is also an action that will produce positive results.

By retrofitting their homes, 350 Massachusetts residents will collectively save about $100,000 per year on their energy bills, remove 120 tons per year of carbon pollution from the atmosphere, and create 2 full-time green careers for local workers. The Commonwealth Challenge represents only the beginning of what we can accomplish from a transition to clean power. We urge you, our elected officials, to help us re-power Massachusetts.”

There are so many people that have helped to make this campaign possible. First among them, are the 32 partners who have dedicated their time and resources to make this dream a reality.

It’s time to celebrate what we’ve achieved. Take a look at this video from our friends at Green For All, who helped organize the April 10th Green Jobs Rally and Block Walk.

Filed under: 350, Climate Policy, Earth Day, Efficiency, green jobs, Video

Currently the bill is held up in the House Committee on Rules, headed by Representative John Binienda. Representative Binienda has the power to release the bill. He has claimed that he supports the goal of 100% clean electricity by 2020, but has nonetheless been blocking the bill and thus has prevented it from receiving a fair hearing. Today, the campaign conducted a stand-in direct action. At eleven o’clock this morning, a group of students walked into Binienda’s office and told his staff that they were not leaving until the Representative explained why he has failed to release the bill, despite claiming to support the bill’s goal. Every fifteen minutes, more students joining those already in his office, escalating the pressure and attracting statehouse media to the scene.

After one round of students was peacefully escorted out the office by security, a second round of students immediately re-entered his office. Eventually, Craig Altemose, Coordinator of The Leadership Campaign, was able to speak with Binienda on the phone. Below is the video of their conversation. Binenda said he would release the bill but did not give a time frame.

At the same time, Jamaica Kelley, the organization’s State Legislative Coordinator, met with Speaker Robert Deleo and his constituents from the First Church of Winthrop. Speaker Deleo is also an important target related to the success of the bill on the House side. In the meeting, the Speaker stated that he wants Massachusetts to be a leader on climate issues. We will find out this afternoon if he’s actually willing to push the bill.

Members of The Leadership Campaign are now meeting to discuss what to do next. Check out our blog for an update on the current status of our bill and the live blog taken during the morning lobby efforts of earth day.

Video: Conversation with Binienda

Filed under: 350, Climate Justice, Climate Policy, Direct Action, Dirty Energy, Earth Day, global warming, Government, Legal, News and Media, Renewable Energy

Canada’s hot ticket to winning the UN climate meetings this weekend in Bonn is through ambitious climate finance.  Any decision on climate financing will follow straight from the Copenhagen fast-track climate financing decision.  Canada has not yet announced how much it will contribute to this funding, or if this money will be additional to our official development assistance.  The fast-track financing contributes a total of 30 billion dollars for mitigation and adaptation programs in developing countries.  In a report published by the Pembina Institute, Canada’s fair share of the total amount is 3 to 4% (roughly $300 to $400 million dollars per year by the year 2010).  In a February 1st speech, Environment Minister Jim Prentice said:

In his speech, Minister Prentice articulates the equity principles that underline these entire negotiations – it is the idea that wealthy countries have the capacity to finance climate solutions more than poor countries.  The equity principle is not just an ethical concern but is central to the negotiations and any tenable agreement.   The strong reference to climate change equity made by Minister Prentice gives us reason to hope that Canada has the will to do it’s fair share.

Keep Up the Pressure!

Instead of a convention center, the negotiations in Bonn are held in a hotel.  I am told there is nothing unusual or odd about a hotel UN conference (the intersessionals always convene here), but something is strange… almost as-if a wedding party can be found just around the corner.  But far from celebratory, the negotiators in the Hotel Maritim seem weary, and tired.  The Bonn atmosphere cannot be more different from Copenhagen.  There is a small presence of NGOs, and the number of Canadians totaled here in Bonn: 3.

I do not think that our smaller numbers indicate a lowered interest in the negotiations.  In fact, I think there is a heightened awareness around the UN process coming out of Copenhagen – and communities back home are more focused on solutions.  This fits well with the new 350.org motto “get to work.” Back home this motto is already a reality.  A lot of Canadian’s are collaborating, setting the political base for strong legislation, and creating solutions without even necessarily knowing it! I want to outline two affirming updates I recieve in my inbox today.

1.) Canada’s Climate Change Accountability Act (Bill C-311). This Wednesday April 14th, Parliament Hill will take a final vote on Bill C-311 – our most ambitious climate legislation that, if passed, will set national greenhouse gas emission targets for Canada that align with scientific targets for avoiding dangerous climate change.  Learn more about the Bill and how to take action.

2.) Renew Canada’s ecoENERGY Retrofit – Homes Program. On March 31st, Natural Resources Canada cancelled it’s ecoENERGY Retrofit – Homes Program.  Tangible actions like home retrofits are exactly the kind of results driven programs that Canada needs to reduce it’s greenhouse gas emissions. It shows the world that Canadians and the Government take seriously the new climate change motto of “Get to Work.”  You can help to bring the ecoENERGY program back by writing your Member of Parliament who you can find here or read a backgrounder on the program.

These talks are important.  Big decisions (deal breaker ones) are made at the UNFCCC because it is the only international framework we have. But right now the UNFCCC is not where the leadership is shown; it seems most evident in communities back home.  I want to take this moment to thank and recognize all of those people working hard for change, and staying positive.  It is evident that people care, and that everyday Canadians are getting to work.  The poet Wendell Berry describes the new ethos of Canada’s community-based leadership -

Our tasks “will be too many to count, too many to report, too many to be publicly noticed or rewarded, too small to make anyone rich or famous.”

Working together we will refocus international efforts back on solutions.  No more loopholes, no more excuses.  Canada, let’s get to work!

Filed under: global warming

A local energy professional checks for insulation in a Boston apartment

The Commonwealth Challenge is building community. Massachusetts neighbors are helping their neighbors save a little money, find a job, and do something about the most daunting crisis the planet has ever seen – climate change. If we are going to weather the storms ahead, we are going to have to learn how to come together. The Challenge is also about bridging the personal and the political. Let’s take the example of Angela, a woman I met on Saturday, to see how it works:

1. She signs up. On Saturday, I asked Angela if she would be willing to get an energy screening in her house to identify options for insulating and retrofitting the place. After I explained that screening was funded through the MassSAVE program she was already paying for through a $.0025/kWh charge each month on her utility bill, she said “sure” and signed up.
2. An energy screening is scheduled. This week a customer service representative at Next Step Living, a local energy efficiency company, will call Angela and schedule her screening. Next Step Living is one of four Massachusetts companies who have signed the “Green Collar Hiring Pledge”, promising to make quality jobs available to local workers with barriers to employment and use environmentally preferred materials and practices.

3. A local worker gets a job. Within a few weeks, a local professional energy specialist will come to Angela’s house, check her boiler and thermostat, check if she has insulation in the walls and attic, and recommend steps she can take to make her home safer, more comfortable, and more energy efficient (Read about Joe’s recent energy screening). As more people like Angela sign up, more local workers can be hired. If Angela chooses to follow up on her screening by investing in insulation, duct sealing, or other retrofit measures, a local worker will benefit with several hours more labor, Angela will save money on her bills for years to come, and her home could use up to 25% less CO2.

4. We deliver the results to Massachusetts. At the end of the campaign, on Thursday April 22nd, neighbors from around Massachusetts will join labor, faith, community, and business groups for a visit to the Massachusetts State House. Residents like Angela will tell the story of what they did alongside workers, business leaders, and advocates. All of them will call on the Massachusetts Legislature to invest aggressively in energy solutions like Angela’s with a statewide goal of 100% clean electricity by 2020.

Like 350’s “Get To Work” campaign, the Commonwealth Challenge was founded on the idea that we can’t put all our eggs in the advocacy and activism basket anymore. We have to come together as communities to begin solving the climate crisis and putting people back to work immediately. We have to show politicians and businesses how to lead as we demand that they enact the laws and create the products and services necessary to get us where we are trying to go. In short – we have to get to work.

The truth is we don’t know if this is going to work. What we do know is that we are not going to sit back as the legislation we are pushing for stalls in committee. We are going to ask our legislators to engage with us in this effort. We took the first step in that direction last Monday by hand-delivering letters to over 100 state representative and senators’ offices inviting them to take the Commonwealth Challenge pledge with us and support 100% clean power by 2020.

So far, one Massachusetts legislator has answered the call – Representative Will Brownsberger of Belmont. With 16 days until the 40th Earth Day, we hope more leaders will step up and take the Commonwealth Challenge. But we’re not waiting for them before we get to work.

Filed under: 350, Act Locally, Business, Earth Day, Economics, green jobs, Political Participation, Politics, United States

The Leadership Campaign capped off the Weeks of Action w/ a sleepout and chants of "Nothing more than 350, nothing less than 100% clean electricity!"

In the past two weeks, hundreds of communities had discussions and took action to begin to define our decade with clean energy.

The votes are still being tallied, but over 6,000 people from across the country voted on the world we want to create, and not surprisingly, the results reflect our generation’s ambition! 83% of us voted to make 100% clean electricity by 2020 a priority.  I’m not just excited about this because we now have thousands of petitions to deliver to our politicians (we do, and we will!). I’m excited about it because we’ve developed not only political demands, but things we can strive to collectively achieve.  And although what we’ve settled on is very ambitious, when you look at the goals and plans that local, statewide, and regional groups drew up, you start to get a sense of “YES, we can actually make this happen!”

In the last few weeks, hundreds of groups either developed a local vision for their decade, brought more people into the discussion, or got to work creating it.

• Students in Florida, and the Southern Energy Network continued to build support around the Student Green Fund, and got over 1,500 new people on board!
• Dozens of campuses are committed to moving their campuses beyond coal – an incredibly important first step if we are to reach that goal of 100% clean electricity.
• The Southwest Workers Union continues to build support for a community-written Peoples Power Plan that will provide safety and prosperity for residents in San Antonio, TX.
  
• The Ohio Student Environmental Coalition is jumping into their upcoming primaries by working to “make green a primary color” and bring political candidates along with them in defining the decade with clean energy
• The stories go on and on with students at Michigan State University calling their own hearing on a coal plant in violation, to voices across Appalachia continuing to articulate a vision of a region with a sustainable economy and no longer constrained by the coal industry, and even to American University’s EcoSense winning their clean energy revolving fund campaign this past week!

I have no illusions that just because thousands of us voted that we want to achieve 100% clean energy by 2020 that it will just magically happen. But I do think­ that if the people who voted and the communities who got to work on their local projects continue to build a movement big enough, strong enough, and creative enough, we might just reach our goal, and we’ll try damn hard.

I closed out the Weeks of Action in Massachusetts with the Leadership Campaign at their sleepout on the Cambridge Commons. What I saw was hundreds of young people from campuses and communities across the state who aren’t waiting for their political leaders to legislate change, they are out there creating it. They are pushing their own bill to move the state towards 100% clean electricity by 2020 by hosting sleepouts, lobby days and call-ins; they are narrowing in on Massachusetts’ 5 coal-fired power plants and developing direct action campaigns to shut them down; and they are continuing to use their campuses and communities as models of a future powered by clean energy, through projects like their Commonwealth Challenge.

These two weeks of action are over, but our work is far from done. In the next few weeks, the communities that worked to come up with a vision for their decade will be delivering their results to community and elected leaders, and the discussions about how to work together to realize our vision will continue at places like the Power Shift New York Summit and beyond.

Filed under: 350, Act Locally, Climate Challenge, Coal Campaign, Dirty Energy, global warming, green jobs, Political Participation, Visioning, Week of Action, Youth Leaders

By: Caitlin Grey

As a high school senior and an ardent environmentalist, I have mixed feelings about new legislation in various states that would change science curricula to include “other views” on climate change, the way some school districts have tried to open the theory of evolution up for debate. I know the goal of such legislation–to downplay the severity of climate change and to cast doubt on its manmade causes–is against everything I stand for as an advocate for all things green. And yet there’s something pretty convincing about how lawmakers have framed these bills: as catalysts for “open discussion” and “intellectual freedom.” I mean, who’s against that?

Indeed, often the most memorable parts of my classes are the fiery debates about contentious topics. It’s when I learn the most. Like when my environmental science teacher led my class in a discussion about the pros and cons of nuclear energy. I’ve always been against building nuclear power plants, which got me into ideological tiffs with some classmates. But being forced to use facts and data I had read in my textbook to hold my own is probably the only reason I remember so much about something I was once so opposed to.

The wording of the latest of these bills, Kentucky’s “Science Education and Intellectual Freedom Act,” seems to be a perfect setup for such in-class intellectual throwdowns: “Teachers, principals, and other school administrators are encouraged to create and foster an environment within public elementary and secondary schools that promotes critical thinking skills, logical analysis, and open and objective discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of scientific theories being studied.”

But how would this mandate to discuss the ‘disadvantages’ of climate change play out in a real classroom? Would teachers hand out articles about James Hansen’s hacked emails? Would students learn about the Hockey Stick Controversy alongside the Kyoto Protocol? Would the objections of a few wayward scientists play down the consensus scientists have built over the last fifteen years?

At my school, teachers grade classroom debates by giving one point to students who voice an opinion and two points to students who back up their arguments with facts. It’s a good system – the winners are usually the students who have studied up the most.

If students could support their arguments against anthropogenic climate change with just as much evidence as the arguments for it, then here-here! But I would guess, given the dearth of credible data that goes against the scientific consensus on global warming, student climate deniers wouldn’t get the best grades. And it wouldn’t really be their fault.

Underneath a mask of seemingly benevolent requests for more discussion and view points lie political, religious, and corporate agendas that will ultimately hurt our nation’s next generation, my generation. All it takes is one teacher to gloss over textbook science and overemphasize controversy, and more students will leave the classroom feeling confused about why polar ice caps are melting. These bills would let teachers get away with that.

“Open discussion” may sound like unicorns and rainbows, but underestimating the effects of climate change is going to bite our country in the butt–if not in time for today’s lawmakers to notice, definitely by the time today’s students are in charge of the country.

Filed under: 350, Act Locally, Campuses, Climate Challenge, Climate Justice, Climate Policy, Climate Science, Coal Campaign, Dirty Energy, global warming, Government, Nuclear Power, Political Participation