Guest Post from – Leslie Pool, Austin City Council Member
Over the past two weeks, history has been made in Paris. Hundreds of leaders from around the world have been in France since Nov. 30th, hashing out what could be the world’s first real global accord on climate change (previous attempts in Kyoto in 1997 and Copenhagen in 2009 failed). Experts say that a strong agreement must be struck in Paris in order to get all of the world’s countries on a path toward reduced emissions and to avoid some of the worst effects of global warming.
Although the high level negotiations involve national representatives from each country, local governments have been asserting their leadership and participating in Paris in a big way.
Last week, a delegation of elected officials from Austin including Mayor Steve Adler, Travis County Commissioner Brigid Shea, and City Council Member Leslie Pool, all traveled to Paris to demonstrate the willingness of cities to join in on the global fight against climate change. They attended lots of events (including the Climate Summit for Local Leaders and the C40Cities Forum) held in tandem with the larger UN climate talks where they touted Austin’s ambitious climate agenda and committed themselves to continued emissions reduction. Council Member Leslie Pool is now back in Austin, but she shared with the AustinEcoNetwork some of her thoughts and reflections written during her time in Paris:
The scope of this conference is much broader and more inclusive than I had imagined. People are here from around the world – expected that! – but the massive size of the effort, and the planning logistics, are remarkable for their comprehensive nature and efficiency.
About 40 people crowded into a small meeting room at our hotel last night for a briefing on conference events, sessions, and negotiations from staff of ICLEI (Local Governments for Sustainability), WWF (World Wildlife Fund), and the National League of Cities. The City of Austin is a member of NLC and ICLEI. Local governments are where it’s happening on climate change. North American cities constitute the largest delegation in attendance at COP21; in the ICLEI meeting were Mayors and city officials, sustainability officers and support staff from FL, CA, IA, PA, CO, MI, NY, UT, WA – oh and TX! – and there are plenty more attending. A major takeaway, voiced by one of the western states’ mayors, is that local governments are issue first responders, we’re more nimble than our state or federal counterparts, and we see the effects of climate change with the most immediacy. It’s fitting that the focus since Copenhagen has been on energizing and organizing at the local levels. City and county governments can and are initiating action to counter global warming. Many nations submitted action plans and results in advance of the Climate Conference, lending a very real sense of urgency and import to the two-week event, and providing more substance and support to our federal and international partners to act as well.
Of much interest to me was Mark Ginsburg’s (US Green Building Council Senior Fellow) mention of work the Green Building Council is doing to develop green building standards for cities. I talked with him briefly after the meeting and will follow up to learn more about the GBC’s work and to provide information to him about what Austin is doing.
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It is critical that we act now to protect the environment before it is too late. We are fortunate that cities like Austin are in a unique position to make a meaningful difference. And we’re on the front lines of this action. Since having been elected, the city has approved the contracts for 600 MW of solar, given Austin Resource Recovery the green light for city-wide composting and broader recycling pickup, and we have made efforts to convert the city’s fleet to electric and alternative fuel vehicles. As chair of the Council Committee on Open Space, Environment and Sustainability, I was lead sponsor on the implementation plan for the 2007 Austin Climate Protection Plan earlier this year, and I am working on other ambitious programs to expand our parks and green space and preserve our urban forest. Green space and trees can help absorb the carbon we’re releasing into the atmosphere, and minimize the negative effects of these greenhouse gases.
Previous talks have failed to slow the relentless pace of global warming which means it’s even more imperative for a united global agreement do something (the early indications that we would dig ourselves a very deep carbon hole date from 1960 according to the timeline on the American Institute of Physics website). All involved recognize the difficulties: the economics of the change needed are complex, involving developing countries which haven’t caused the crisis but who are sorely affected by it, and other nations that can point to positive efforts to lower their emissions levels but don’t like having to bear the full burden of the task.
So what’s different this time? After the failures to ink an accord in Kyoto in 1997 and Copenhagen in 2009, efforts to include China and India in the agreement, two of the world’s largest contributors to carbon pollution, intensified. For instance, China’s President Xi Jinpingrecently announced his nation will attempt to reduce industrial emissions starting in 2017, primarily by cap-and-trade and requiring companies to pay for government-issued permits to pollute.
Collective action by cities supporting unity among nations is what we’re looking for in Paris; the world can’t wait much longer.
To the person, all the people I’ve met since arriving are gracious and interested, engaged and focused. And the French are impressively tolerant and patient as I try out my rudimentary French on them. Most everyone speaks some English anyway, so the language gap is quite narrow.
Probably the weirdest thing to date are the voices shouting in the streets outside my hotel in the wee hours of the morning … No idea what they’re yelling about but it’s getting to be a regular occurrence!
In terms of the feeling in Paris with respect to the attacks, law enforcement are visible on foot, and so far I’ve seen two cohorts of police cars with loud sirens rushing to an unknown destination; sirens can be heard throughout the city at all hours throughout the day. We’re receiving regular security reports by email.
Travis County Commissioner Brigid Shea and Austin City Council Member Leslie Pool at the Climate Summit for Local Leaders in Paris. All photos are courtesy of Leslie Pool.
