[BoulderCouncilHotline] Re: Summary from Bonn - climate action

[Appelbaum, Matt]

Colleagues - A quick follow-up to Sam's excellent summary (while I'm still on Hotline).  All of the US representatives were much appreciated, so it was great that two of us were there from Boulder.  While the US administration was, not surprisingly, much deplored, people clearly recognized that many US cities and states are still very much engaged in greenhouse reduction efforts and fully support the Paris agreement.  The unofficial US pavilion was a big hit, holding numerous sessions attended by US senators and governors, among others.

As a Board member of ICLEI-USA and also a member of ICLEI's international council, I mostly went to the COP23 in order to attend the sessions ICLEI put on, and also their full-day council meeting (and ICLEI will be paying for the bulk of my travel expenses).  On Saturday I was invited to be on a panel of speakers from various cities after the showing of Al Gore's new film, and Gore himself was there to comment on the film and also to converse with us.  I told the story of our muni efforts, explaining why it is important, how we've managed to keep enough community support (we got a nice round of applause when I announced the election results), but also why these types of efforts are so very difficult to pursue.

On Sunday, ICLEI put on a full day of sessions at their Cities and Regions Summit.  This was the first time that cities were given such exposure at a COP, and there were a number of fine talks, culminating in a surprisingly excellent address by Schwarzenegger.  For me, Monday was spent at the ICLEI council meeting where we had a good discussion about ICLEI's international efforts.

I'll be staying on both the ICLEI-USA Board and international council for another three-year term, checking in with Boulder city staff from time to time about ICLEI's work and how our city might be more involved.  ICLEI will be holding its once-every-three-year World Congress in June, 2018 in Montreal, which I'll be attending; perhaps some councilmembers or city staff might be interested in coming as well.

--Matt

From: Weaver, Sam
Sent: Tuesday, November 14, 2017 2:37 PM
To: HOTLINE <HOTLINE at bouldercolorado.gov>
Subject: Summary from Bonn - climate action

Fellow Council Members and HOTLINE followers,

I am currently in Barcelona, Spain for the Smart Cities Expo and World Congress, after attending the COP23 Local and Regional Leaders meeting in Bonn, Germany.  Matt Appelbaum was at the Bonn meeting with me.  COP stands for Conference of Parties, the annual international gathering of representatives of all world nations focused on climate change mitigation and adaptation issues.

There is a great deal to report back to the residents and businesses of Boulder from these meetings, and I will do that more completely when I am back in pocket.  For now, a shorter note.

One of the organizations that has been fundamentally responsible for the growing recognition that national climate goals cannot be achieved without local and regional leadership is ICLEI.  ICLEI organized and flawlessly ran the local leaders meeting in Bonn, which was the first such meeting to be held and recognized as part of the official business of a COP event.  There were over 300 local and regional elected officials at the meeting, and a total of over 1000 representatives of local and regional governments from  all over the world.  You can learn more about what was achieved here: http://www.cities-and-regions.org/iclei/

ICLEI originally stood for the "International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives," but in 2003 the organization dropped the full phrase and became "ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability" to reflect a broader focus on sustainability, not just environmental initiatives.  Boulder has long been an ICLEI participant, with Matt currently serving on the board of ICLEI. I delivered a talk on Boulder energy regulations and incentives at the Japanese Pavilion at the invitation of the Japanese ICLEI representative.
There was an event at Bonn called 'We Are Still In', reflecting the commitment of many US cities and states to meet the Paris Accord goals of COP21 (2015), even if the US national leadership pulls our country out of the accords.  If/when that happens, we would be the only nation in the world not part of this agreement.  Boulder and many other cities, counties, and states would continue with our climate action efforts in any case.  I thought it would be useful for those interested to see what Jerry Brown and Mike Bloomberg have to say about US local actions here: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/14/opinion/global-warming-paris-climate-agreement.html

Governor Brown gave an extremely powerful speech during the meeting early in the day that received a standing ovation.  Former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger gave the closing address, which was not only humorous, but inspiring.  He said something along the lines of (paraphrasing here): Pollution kills people.  If someone tells you to slow down on reducing pollution, you say F. U.  He also said (paraphrasing): Don't listen to the nay-sayers.  If I did, I would still be yodeling up in Austria.

All in all, there is clearly growing international commitment to address the existential threat of climate change.  I witnessed this growing momentum in person, and wanted to share it.  I hope that Boulder continues to work to meet these goals within our community as part of this global effort.

All the best,

Sam Weaver
Member of Boulder City Council
weavers at bouldercolorado.gov<mailto:weavers at bouldercolorado.gov>
Phone: 303-416-6130

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