First Day at The Climate Group

I want to note down some surprising facts I learned today, before I forget them.

Highlights of information, in no particular order:

-CA emissions: 38% transport, 23% electricity, 20% industry, 9% commercial/residential, 6% agriculture. This explains why hybrids are allowed to drive in the carpool lane. I believe the gov’t should subsidize for CA residents to buy hybrids. The federal govt should subsidize, in fact.

-H2O! ~Collecting, treating, and delivering water is the largest use of energy in CA, about 19%.

-Offsets are when a company reduces its carbon emissions, and you can buy/sell them

- RECs, renewable energy credits, are totally different – they are just when they take dirty energy and make it renewable.

-a company can buy offsets and claim that they reduced their emissions, since they techinically own them. These offsets only count if they are deemed as additionalities. Additionalities are confirmed by CDM (Clean Development Mechanism) and is an outlined and structured process.

- Bar Camp, started in Palo Alto and used at google often, is like foo camp (foo camp is public, however, vs. bar camp which is invite only with people of certain level of expertise) and is an un-conference wihtout an agenda. invitees come up with topics themselves and an MC is present to field the conversations, but it is otherwise spontaneous and a new hit thing.

-Google plays hard to get, as expected.

-CA’s Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) demands electric utilities to procure 20% of their electricity from renewable sources by 2010. The main 3 in CA are PG&E, SCE, and San Diego something something. This explains SCE’s hiring spree in their power procurement division, and why they assured they would be the last division, and company, to lay off workers in all of southern california. CA government mandates work! It’s scramble time, utilities! However, this is a bit unfair because utility companies, in general, are already leading the clean climate change movement.

-Decoupling – only in CA – utility companies make more profit if their customers save energy – their profits are split from energy sold. Very efficient. Utility companies are valued mainly by their assets and number of customers. Great concept and should be implemented all of the US and the world.

-AB32 passed in 2006, however, plans were not created until 2008. This is how policy works and why it is so slow! Mandates are passed without plans, and allowed to be this way, for politicians to keep a successful image. By 2012, however, cap and trade will be implemented in CA. and it will be involuntary.

-Computer usage per capita in China will be 7x by 2020 of what it is today.

-CO2e from ICT (info & communications tech.) is 1/4 from its production and materials, 3/4 from usage. ICT footprint is about 2% of global emissions today, and expected to increase. ICT emissions increases will not come from the increase in PCs, but rather data centres (data storage).

Goals:

-Figure out what consultancies promote research studies (beyond publications of short white papers) and how active they are about investing in climate change projects (this encompasses events, studies, analyses, publications, pilot funding, etc.)