Regions and cities acting on Climate Change, side-stepping international agreements

Coalition of the Tired of Waiting: Fighting Climate Change at Ground Level: More Nimble Cities and Regions Eyeing First Mover Advantage, SolveClimate.com, by Ann Danylkiw – Apr 16th, 2010
A pattern is emerging in the geopolitics of climate change this year: Countries are banding together to begin to map out strategies to adapt to and mitigate climate change outside of the UNFCCC process and ahead of a final international climate agreement.

With the U.S. and Australia — both key players for a clear global cleantech market signal — notably lagging behind the rest of the developed world in managing national climate affairs, governments in other developed countries and emerging market countries are lining up to take first mover advantages……………

Regional Cooperation

In Europe, cities and regions are already forming coalitions and readying for changes ahead of EU mandates. “Regions have realized that action on climate change translates into better economic prospects for their citizens,” Klaus Kilipp, secretary general of the Association of European Regions, told European environmental publication ENDS.

The EU reported recently that it has enough renewable energy resources that most of its states will be in surplus and in the future could trade that surplus cross-border. That sort of regional cooperation doesn’t end with the EU.

A study out at the end of last year from the World Bank finds that in sub-Saharan Africa, pooling and trading energy resources across borders could save “$2 billion a year in the costs of power system development” and “puts Africa on a cleaner development path in terms of carbon emissions … displacing 20,000 megawatts of thermal power in the process and saving 70 million tons a year of carbon emissions.”

Africa has been trying to raise finances to further develop regional power pools since the 1990’s and, with the exception of the South African Power Pool, has so far met with failure, but great potential exists.

What this shows is that inter- and intra-regional measures can be effective for creating adaptation and mitigation infrastructure. The technology necessary to build that adaptation and mitigation infrastructure doesn’t necessarily have to come from above: It will more likely come through partnerships, on bilateral scales either between countries or trading blocks.

Coalition of the Tired of Waiting: Fighting Climate Change at Ground Level | SolveClimate.com

April 17, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, climate change | climate change, Copenhagen, global warming, renewable energy, solar, wind