Gary Simon, chair of
CleanStart, is sending us dispatches from his experience in Dalian, China where he is presenting at an event put on by the
World Economic Forum.
His full text is below. Very, very interesting stuff!
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When you get off the airplane in Dalian, a large coastal city, you can smell the economy in the air. It smells like smoke from uncontrolled coal power plants. That story is repeated all over China, where one large coal power plant is completed every two weeks. That's no exaggeration.
China is facing a bit of a crisis. Every time they remove a restriction on the economy, wealth increases and the people buy more stuff. And a lot of what they want requires POWER. Every dollar in added GNP is adding 5 times the amount of energy demand that it does in the US and Europe, because of two things: One, they have a lot of catching up to do in an economy that was chronically short on power; and two, they are not using the energy very efficiently. There is a lot of waste.
Previous to this year, the goal of this still-central-planned economy was GDP growth. Now this year the Premier has added energy efficiency as a goal, and mayors of big cities and provincial governors faced being sacked if they don't reduce energy waste. Now there's an incentive to do better. But oops that is an about-face from the goals of just a few months ago. No point growing an economy if the people choke on the air, though.
The World Economic Forum, the sponsor of this conference, has as its goal "Committed to Improving the State of the World". Pretty ambitious goal. And they are darn serious about it.
Today's session of "Davos in Dalian" was about two things--China and Energy, and The Individual and Energy. Both were wildly interesting. China is quickly outgrowing its energy resources, and that's not a good thing. It makes them want to strike unilateral deals where ever necessary to get more oil and gas. They have lots of coal...but, gag.... So they are not choosy about where to get the "cleaner" oil and gas. Or what they have to promise in order to get it. Not a good thing for cooperation among nations.
China had the opportunity to avoid the mistakes of the West in wasting energy, just as it had the opportunity to build a modern wireless phone network and skip all the poles and wires. It has seized on the latter and done well. Cellphones work better here than in the US. But it missed the first. Now they are trying to catch up on that as well. Now they understand why that was important. Researchers from UC Berkeley's Lawrence Lab spent many years over here teaching the benefits of energy efficiency. Didn't get it. Until now.
So there is now tremendous opportunity for those who provide energy efficiency services or who have efficient energy devices. It is the local government that likely will be the driving force behind making the switch.
The marvelous hotel in which this conference is being held was built a decade ago. It is not particularly energy efficient, but it is stunning. Compact fluorescent lamps are in the rooms, but hundreds of incandescents are the rule in the big ballrooms. When asked why not CFLs everywhere, the answer was they didn't have time to respecify the standard design for these chain hotels they got from the West. They needed the hotel space ASAP. Hmmm. We in the West gave them some of our bad habits. Shame on us.
Same answer on why not build coal plants with at least minimal controls. Nice idea, but no time to waste. Needed the plant on line. Emission controls, even minimal ones, just delayed the plant start-up. Hmmm. Why the big rush? The revolution of rising expectations. People demanded the power. To keep the peace, they got the power....and the pollution.
But now there seems to be an emerging balance between considering new supply and looking to reduce waste. That's a big change and it has lots of consequences, even in geopolitics.
The subject of The Individual and Energy was all about how the determination of the energy future is more being determined by local and personal decisions than by national governments. This was worldwide, not just in China. All national governments seem to be in policy gridlock. The first discussion was on the role of cities in going green, and bypassing the national policy stalemate. A compelling case was made that in order to "improve the state of the world" on energy, it may be more productive to encourage cities (being closer to the individual) to become more energy efficient and clean and green, than debating national leaders. The formula is basically that efficient, clean, and green energy makes a more sustainable city and a sustainable city is a more prosperous city in the long run. There is by this logic a direct connection between clean, green, efficient energy to quality of life to quality of work. It is in cities' best interests to pay attention to this logic. That was a novel thought.
To match with that insight, the World Economic Forum is creating the Slim Cities Project (read it carefully--not Sim City, the game, but Slim City with an "L"). The idea is to give cities the tools, the ideas, the examples to "slim down" their energy use, their carbon footprint, and their environmental impact in general. Then their progress would be measured and they would be awarded status as a Silver, Gold or Platinum Slim City. If the public buys the idea of a Slim City as the High Quality City, then the residents of a city would push to become the best Slim City possible. Interesting concept.
Then today I read in the Bee on-line that Sacramento wants to be among the cleanest cities. Interesting convergence of ideas. Becoming a World Economic Forum Platinum Slim City would give Sacramento (and the region if other cities join in) a much taller platform from which to shout its achievements and display is commitment. In the upcoming October 11 Clean Energy Showcase, it would be good to consider the idea of the cities in the region joining the WEF Slim Cities Project. We would be joining the city of Xi'an (the city of the Terra Cotta Warriors fame) whose Mayor made an impassioned argument in favor of the Slim City as the High Quality City, Stockholm and others. Pretty good company in which to find ourselves as a pioneer and a way for Sacramento to differentiate itself from the other Clean Energy Cities.
The next topic was how information technology could be empowering individuals directly to create the energy future they want. Through the ability now to purchase "green credits" for renewable energy, "white credits" for improving energy efficiency, and "carbon credits" for reducing CO2 emissions, individuals can actually direct money to the projects that increase renewable energy, increase energy efficiency, and reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Individuals no longer need to wait for governments to act. They have the power themselves. That was an important message and pretty powerful. It is all possible because these credits have been created, can be traded by Wall Street types, and actually are meaningful--so long as there are some basic standards for determining what qualifies for the credits.
But how do individuals buy these credits? They are not something you can pick up at the grocery---at least not yet. But that is possible. And here is an even more intriguing idea: Ever pull into a gas station, insert your credit card, and have a question pop-up "Add Car Wash?". Sure you have. What if a second option popped up: "Want to offset the carbon dioxide emissions your tankful will create?" On the order of $1 extra would offset the CO2 impact of a 15 gallon fill-up. Where would your money go? It would pay for projects, maybe even in China, to decrease carbon dioxide emissions that are occuring now. Pretty cool. Sure, someone would have to market the heck out of that to get people to actually press "Yes", but maybe that is something the Sacramento regional governments could ask the big oil companies to install. BP had a presentation showing the first station in LA that did exactly that. And it was a beautiful station, powered by solar and with a gorgeous bath room. Now people drive extra miles just to fill up there and use the 'loo.
So, come on Sacramento, let's get BP to put a Helios station in our area like the one in LA...and reprogram all those pumps to add a dollar for stopping climate change. And then let's get Shell and Chevron to do the same. Let's get a marketing campaign. We have had "Get Change Back from your Dollar at McDonald's". How about "Stop Climate Change with your Dollar"? That would put Sacramento on the map in a meaningful way. The cleanest, greenest city in the world? Why not go for it?
Three more days of Dalian this week, but not all on energy, regrettably. More tomorrow.
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