New York State will be the site of a major conference to identify
actionable solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the United
States. Scheduled for June 25th and 26th
in the Adirondack Park, the Conference will convene business leaders and
experts on climate change economics, carbon finance, selected emissions
sectors, and the U.S. carbon sink. Participants are expected to produce
a slate of possible policy and regulatory options to overcome market and
other barriers that are inhibiting implementation of substantial
low-cost greenhouse gas emission reductions.
“We know ways exist to materially cut
greenhouse gas emissions. What we do not yet know is the policy and
regulatory framework that can kick-start these solutions so they take
hold across the U.S. economy,” said Conference
Co-Chair Carter Bales. Mr. Bales was a co-author of a recently published
McKinsey & Company report which identifies ways to cut U.S. greenhouse
gas emissions by up to 28 percent with positive impact on the U.S.
economy. Additional cuts are available at relatively low cost (ranging
up to $50 per ton of CO2 equivalents saved). “We
finally have the facts in hand to move against greenhouse gas emissions
in an economically sensible way.” said Mr.
Bales, “Achieving these reductions at the
lowest cost to the economy will require coordinated economy-wide action,
which is why we are assembling this group of climate leaders to work on
the task.”
The Conference is by invitation only, and will be limited to 125
participants. “Many past conferences have
focused on identifying the problem and its causes,”
said Ross Whaley, the other conference Co-Chair. “This
is not another of those conferences. This conference centers on finding
the U.S. solution.” Robert Socolow, the
Princeton University physicist and co-director of the University’s
Carbon Mitigation Initiative called the planned gathering, “a
serious opportunity to prove we can start to get ideas into the market.
We are going to go beyond the theory that this will work, and into the
reality of making it work.”
Judith Enck, New York State’s Deputy
Secretary for the Environment is also expected to attend. “New
York has long been a leader in protecting the environment,”
said Ms. Enck. “This Conference is going to
look at the most cost-effective ways we can bring real reductions in
U.S. greenhouse gas emissions based on serious and thorough research. We
are especially interested because the conference will focus on ways we
can reduce emissions in a way that will create net economic benefits.”
Conference organizers said New York State provides an ideal venue for
the national conference in part because the state has offered to help
advance a slate of pilot projects designed to test certain of the
recommendations that might arise from the conference.
More than 70 major businesses and organizations are scheduled to
participate. Businesses slated to date to participate include Brookfield
Power, National Grid, Honeywell, Hellmuth Obata & Kassabaum (the world’s
largest architectural firm), General Electric, AES Corporation, Bovis
Lend Lease, (one of the world’s biggest
project management and construction companies), Credit Suisse Capital
Markets, and McKinsey & Company. Conference partners include New York
State, the New York Academy of Sciences, The National Geographic
Society, Pew Center on Global Climate Change, Yale School of Environment
and Forestry, the US Green Building Council, the Rockefeller Brothers
Fund, and the American Museum of Natural History.
"Holding this conference in the Adirondack Park is no accident. It will
bring together people from around the nation to a place where New
Yorkers have taken leadership positions on many critical environmental
issues over the years,” said New York State’s
DEC Commissioner Pete Grannis. Moreover, the Adirondack Park reminds us
what is at stake if we fail to curb greenhouse gas emissions.”
The Conference will be held at The Wild Center www.wildcenter.org
in Tupper Lake. The new museum complex was recently awarded a Silver
LEED certification from the US Green Building Council.
For a list of conference advisors and participants and more information
about the Conference, please refer to the Conference website: www.usclimateaction.org.
For information on the McKinsey Report, Reducing U.S. Greenhouse Gas
Emissions: How Much at What Cost? see the McKinsey Special Climate
Change Initiative at: http://www.mckinsey.com/clientservice/ccsi/greenhousegas.asp
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