[bouldercouncilhotline] Hotline: Climate Impacts Coalition meeting in DC

[cmosupport at bouldercolorado.gov]

Sender: Appelbaum, Matt

Colleagues -- A very quick report on my 24-hour dash to DC to take part in the first meeting of the newly formed Climate Impacts Coalition, a joint effort of the World Resources Institute and the Union of Concerned Scientists.  This was attended by about 80 invited guests, with sessions on issues quite relevant to Boulder; I've attached the agenda and also a description of the CIC.  Amazingly, I got there in time for the first session (and yes, its chair, Rafe Pomerance, is Steve's brother), and was able to stay through the afternoon break.

My session was a good one as the mayors -- I know both mayors Lerner and Becker very well from NLC -- described the real impacts of climate change and extreme weather events on their communities.  Caroline Berndt from NLC -- who staffs my EENR (Energy, Environment, and Natural Resources) committee -- provided an update on NLC's activities, and Susan Ruffo from CEQ (whom I've also chatted with a few times) gave an administration perspective.  There is a new federal task force on climate change resiliency, and Ralph Becker is one of the members -- and I think that the EENR committee will also be engaged in these issues.  I've attached below an email that in turn contains an article about the mayors session.

There was also much discussion on various scientific findings, and considerable conversation about how to best discuss these issues in the public and political realms, and why climate change issues don't seem to resonate terribly well or be seen as critical concerns.

If the presentations are made available I'll pass them on.  Not clear where this Coalition will go from here, but hopefully Boulder will be able to stay involved.

--Matt

-----Original Message-----
From: Christina Deconcini [mailto:CDeconcini at wri.org] 
Sent: Wednesday, December 04, 2013 6:29 PM
To: Appelbaum, Matt
Cc: Forbes Tompkins
Subject: E&E on our CIC event

Dear Mayor Applebaum,

Thank you again for making the journey to be a participant in this event today. You were terrific and we got a lot of positive feedback on it. I hope your flight back went okay.  Here's the first clip that I've seen from the event.

Best,

Christina DeConcini, Esq. 
Director of Government Affairs
World Resources Institute


>> Mayors ask Washington to lead -- or get out of the way -- on resiliency 
>> 
>> Jean Chemnick, E&E reporter
>> 
>> Published: Wednesday, December 4, 2013 
>> 
>> Three Democratic mayors say the federal government can help their cities prepare for climate change by offering information and support -- and trying to reverse policies that have inhibited disaster planning.
>> 
>> Visiting Washington, D.C., a week before the first meeting of the White House's new adaptation task force, the mayors of Salt Lake City, Boulder, Colo., and Pinecrest, Fla., praised the Obama administration's Climate Action Plan.
>> 
>> But while new efforts on adaptation and mitigation are important, Boulder Mayor Matthew Appelbaum said, "the first thing the feds should do is stop making things worse." The mayors spoke at a forum hosted by the World Resources Institute and the Union of Concerned Scientists.
>> 
>> Boulder experienced a rare and destructive flood in September, spurring calls from Appelbaum and others to revise policies that encourage building and rebuilding in flood zones and other areas that will be increasingly vulnerable to stronger storms.
>> 
>> By subsidizing flood and fire insurance and backing mortgages in areas where climate-related damage will become more prevalent, Washington is exposing the U.S. taxpayer and local home and business owners to hefty financial risk, he said. This is particularly true for new development.
>> 
>> "Maybe we'll never get up the political gumption to make everybody move, but we should at least stop encouraging people to increase development in those locations," he said. "The feds keep doing it."
>> 
>> Besides phasing out support for construction in risky areas, the federal government can also help local communities plan by offering more information about climate change and encouraging regions to work across jurisdictions to boost their resiliency, he said.
>> 
>> Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker said climate change will pose a threat to his city's water supply, which is dependent on alpine snowpack.
>> 
>> "We are all in trouble," he said.
>> 
>> A Democrat from a deeply red state, Becker conceded that most of Utah's elected officials dispute the existence of climate change, which he said was a disconnect given the effect warming will have on both water supply and air quality in their home districts.
>> 
>> "I walk out of meetings with most of the members of my congressional delegation and most of the members of Congress, and I just shake my head," he said.
>> 
>> But while Becker said the country would be best served by a new federal policy pricing carbon, he advised the local government officials and advocates attending the meeting to focus their message on the practical implications of climate change rather than seeking to tie every weather event to climate change.
>> 
>> Pinecrest Mayor Cindy Lerner said South Florida was making some strides to address climate risk but was "still doing stupid things."
>> 
>> A "stupid thing," she said, is the Turkey Point Nuclear Generating Station south of her suburban village on a shoreline threatened by sea-level rise.
>> 
>> The White House's 24-member adaptation task force, which will be coordinated by the Council on Environmental Quality, has more Democrats than Republicans, but Susan Ruffo, CEQ's deputy associate director for climate change adaptation, said the administration has received broad positive feedback about its aim to boost resiliency on the local level (Greenwire, Nov. 1).
>> 
>> "This is not a political issue," she said.
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