It's the end of the world as we know it... and I feel fine

The Trump administration is expected to announce plans to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement right about now.  The headline implications of this are on the surface, hard to fathom. Run-away climate change will cause immeasurable suffering and economic decline.  If this move leads other countries to back away from their commitments, we could lose what may have been the very last-minute last change we had to avoid really devastating climate impacts.

On the other hand, much of the rest of the world, and much of the US will not let this ill-considered move slow them down.  In fact it could help us all redouble our efforts.

In the US, leading companies, cities, states, colleges and universities, faith groups, and others see the benefits of accelerating the transition to a low-carbon economy. The market forces are there.  By giving up our leadership role, the US may miss some opportunities, but others will take advantage of them.

The Low-Carbon USA initiative has been tracking businesses and cities committed to creating a sustainable future. Recently our friends at Second Nature looped in the colleges and universities that we have been working with on this for 10 years -- with over 600 committed to carbon neutrality, and making great strides in that direction.

Groups like the Climate Leadership Council, conservative Republicans, and the Citizens Climate Lobby are working to enact smart carbon fee and dividend programs.  States like Mass and California are considering ways to advance and expand their carbon pricing initiatives.  With long-standing leadership from the likes of Michael Bloomberg, mayors and cities have been working on these issues, and aren't going to stop.

Investors see where we the world is going. Most of the world's largest asset owners are taking action on climate risk and moving to greener investments. At the Intentional Endowments Network we're supporting endowments in keeping up with this trend.

While the climate challenge requires all oars rowing in sync -- and Trump's rowing backwards will hurt Americans, our children, and people everywhere -- my message to the rest of the world would be that the US is still with you, and we will now accelerate our work to address the climate crisis. We have no other choice.

Stay going.

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CARBON: New short film on pricing carbon

Here's a new short film, narrated and produced by Leonardo DiCaprio about the need to price carbon, and a run down on the national and regional efforts to do so.

It is the first in a 4-part series called Green World Rising.  Go to www.greenworldrising.org for more info, and to sign an open letter -- "Consensus for Action" -- to world leaders at the UN Climate Summit happening in September in New York to show your support for bold action on sustainability.

Stay going. 

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You're already paying for carbon pollution

Below is a great video from The Climate Reality Project about the price of carbon -- explaining why we need a price on carbon.  The consensus is finally building among the economists, politicians, and the public that putting a price on carbon is the most effective and efficient way to minimize the damage of climate disruption. 

The EPA's recently announced rules limiting carbon from existing power plants (The Clean Power Plan) is an important step, and one that will help pave the way for a price on carbon.  It's design of allowing states to determine how to meet the rules is the right way to go, and I expect it will result in more states instituting a price on carbon -- either by joining RGGI, or connecting with California or the Western Climate Initiative, or instituting their own pricing schemes, like cap & trade or cap & dividend, or a simple carbon tax like British Columbia.

These state-level precedents are what we need in order to get more comprehensive federal legislation, and from there a meaningful international climate agreement, with the US leading the way.  Given the recent results of the National Climate Assessment (and many other reports and studies) this needs to happen fast enough for an agreement in Paris in 2015 that goes into effect by 2020. 

Check out the video and share.  To get this done we need as many people as possible on board and letting their elected officials know they support a more effective and efficient way of paying for carbon pollution -- through a price on carbon.  Obama made it clear in this recent interview with Tom Friedman -- we need a price on carbon, we're not going to burn all of the carbon in the ground, and to enable a smooth ramp to clean energy, we need broad public support. Quoting Lincoln, he said: ‘With public opinion there’s nothing I cannot do, and without public opinion there’s nothing I can get done.’ As this piece in the NYT today shows, leadership on climate is finally becoming a political winner, and we need to keep it that way.


Stay going.
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