Dispatches from the Maine Climate Summit

Here I am - reporting from the Maine Climate Summit.

The Maine Geocluster of SustainUS is hosting the 3rd annual Maine Climate Summit at the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine.

Current temperature - 19 degrees, but according to the weather website, it feels like 9 degrees.

There is a high energy level despite the cold. Over one hundred listeners appeared for the keynote speaker last night, Alison Drayton. A hundred people may not seem like a lot, but for a small town, on a Friday night, in the middle of the winter, not a bad accomplishment.

Alison Drayton is an international climate negotiations expert. She is a senior official of the United Nations Development Programme with an extensive history in international climate change negotiations. She is the former Counselor in the Permanent Mission of Guyana to the UN, where she coordinated the Group of G-77/China on climate and sustainable development issues during the formative years of the Framework on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol. According to COA President David Hales, "Her visionary leadership and her superior negotiating skills helped set the basis for international progress in addressing global warming."

Drayton addressed a number of key issues in her address last night. The disproportionate impacts of climate change on developing countries and the rising costs of action were two points that were emphasized.

The threats of rising famine and malnutrition are not limited to developing countries. Avoiding these crises requires changes at the fundamental level of many of these regions. Costs of action are still less expensive as the future costs of inaction.

She also pointed out that the developing world blames the industrialized world for their historical role in climate change, their lack of inaction and in some cases their refusal to acknowledge the threat.

She ended her talk with some practical, realistic changes we can make in our daily lives.

1) exercise voter power. Vote for the greener alternative, lobby your elected official
2) save energy, save the planet, save dollars. Wash in cold water, use long life lightbulbs,
3) exercise consumer power. Support green companies. 12 billion dollars are spent on plastic bags alone.
4) exercise ethical investment. The power of the individual share holder in the united states is very important
5) support clean tech
6) require public companies to report on their emissions
7) buy local

The question and answer period following her presentation provided a very candid look at the negotiations process within the UN.
Other issues raised included our current level of preparation for the worst case scenario, as well as the post-2012 question that has been plaguing Kyoto-watchers for quite some time.

The role of international negotiations in mitigating climate change raises a number of key points regarding states varying levels of commitment to solving the climate crisis. Issues of sovereignty, wealth and global influence all play a key role in how we will solve this problem.

Maine house Representative Ted Kauffman raised some interesting points regarding the role of US States acting as incubators for legislation. As more US states are entering into climate change policy, both locally and regionally, businesses are beginning to fear the changes required to comply with a number of different systems. This is prompting lobbying at the Federal level by companies who are not necessarily in support of climate policy. This is illustrative of the high level of adaptability individuals and businesses can have in the face of legislation and compliance. By implementing important policy at the State level, we can make a strong statement - to constituents, businesses and other governments, that the state of the climate is posing severe problems around the world. Governments need to implement policy, and individuals need to be enterprising.

Let's hope that $25 million dollar prize gets awarded soon!

-julia