Moving Towards A Low Carbon Economy: Messaging That Works

Comparative Analysis of Three European Cities and Their Strategies for Building a Low Carbon Economy and Combating Climate Change

Rex Burkholder1, Metro Councilor, Portland Oregon

AbstractIn 2011, the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF) awarded me an Urban & Regional Policy fellowship. The fellowship allowed me to travel to Rotterdam (NL), Birmingham (UK) and Bologna, (IT). In each city I interviewed leaders in business, government, academia and non-governmental organizations.

My goal was to learn why there is strong support for addressing climate change in Europe when there seems to be so much resistance in the United States. Four key messages were widely cited by the leaders I met for why they are involved:

1. Economic opportunityThere is money to be made—and saved—by investing in energy conservation and renewable energy. These investments also create jobs in-country; a key issue where there have been massive declines in manufacturing employment.

2. Increasing demandDemand for clean energy is growing worldwide. Countries that are first and best in the market will reap significant economic rewards.

3. National securityMuch of Europe’s energy is subject to market volatility and political intrigue. Russia’s punitive shutting off of Ukraine’s gas supply in the winter of 2009 is a

1 Rex Burkholder is a Councilor in the Metro regional government in Portland, Oregon. Metro is responsible for a range of regional scale services such as waste disposal and the Oregon Zoo as well as guiding regional land use and transportation decisions. In his eleven years on the Council he led reform of the Regional Transportation Plan using an outcomes-based approach. This included recognizing climate change and fossil fuel depletion as key trends, leading to unprecedented funding for walking, cycling and transit projects. He also led Metro’s first Strategic Plan leading to the adoption of 6 Outcomes for a Successful Region that guide all decisions made by Metro.

The issue of climate change and its impacts on our communities and the natural world has been of concern to Burkholder for many years, serving on two committees that advised the Governor on mitigation and adaptation strategies. He also led Metro’s efforts to integrate climate change into long-range planning for the Portland region.

Before coming to Metro, Burkholder co-founded and staffed the Bicycle Transportation Alliance , advocating successfully for inclusion of cycling into the region and the state’s transportation system, helping Portland become the #1 Bicycling City in North America 5 times running. He also co-founded the Coalition for a Livable Future, almost 100 community organizations working together for a sustainable and just region.

Moving Towards A Low Carbon Economy: Messaging That Works

strong argument for investing in energy independence. With plentiful coal and gas supplies yet importing 60% of our oil, this is an American problem, as well.

4. Climate changeThe increased potential for droughts, floods, disease, extreme weather and other challenges are motivating innovations and investments to protect past investments in roads, bridges, and buildings while also making economies and cities more efficient and sustainable.

Finally, the leaders I talked with stressed that success in achieving economic, social and environmental sustainability depends upon cross-sector collaboration that is intentional, outcome-oriented and willing to challenge existing models of business and governance.

IntroductionLike many working on climate change, I have struggled to find the right

messages that would focus my community’s attention on climate change and inspiring greater engagement on their part. I went to Europe looking for what motivated businesses to invest, governments to act and the public to support actions to prepare and prevent the negative consequences of a warming planet.

In my visits with European leaders in four social sectors – business, academic, NGO and government – my quest for “action messages” transformed to a dialogue about how social change happens, and in particular how it can happen on a rapid and pervasive scale. Almost everyone with whom I spoke recognizes that their world is changing in many, mostly unhappy ways. As a result, decision-makers possess a keen awareness that they need to do things differently, whatever crisis they are confronting. And there are many: financial, energy, decline in civic unity and trust of institutions, immigration, city regeneration, and massive shifts in economic development, or in the environment.

Thus my quest expanded to include a different question: How can we as a society and a species respond successfully and rapidly to a world that is changing in novel and disturbing ways? What messages and what kinds of engagement work to motivate the various sectors of society to create new investment patterns, new partnerships and new measures of success?

I found that collaboration and innovation are the rule where change management is successful and lacking where people are still struggling with understanding and responding to new trends. Of particular and exciting interest was my discussion with Dr. Derk Loorbach of DRIFT, an academic that uses the research into societal change (Transition Theory) to help move communities forward through deliberate collaborative techniques focusing on innovation. In short, he claims that successful substantive, transformative change requires us to

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get out of our institutional boxes and be willing to abandon hierarchy and expertism. 2

In short, we are very good at doing what we already do well better and more efficiently—what we are not good at is responding holistically to change. Our traditional approaches to problem solving are simply allowing us to dig our hole deeper and faster, not get us out of it.

This report is a story of how well three European and one American city are doing at “climbing out of our holes” and responding to the climate change challenge.

The tale of 3 cities: Rotterdam, Birmingham, and BolognaThese three cities, like Portland, are often overlooked because they are seen as

centers of business and manufacturing (and fading ones at that) rather than of culture and history. But, again like Portland and most mid-sized cities in the west, they are struggling to transition from economies based on manufacturing to one based on trade and services. All are also attempting to regenerate obsolete and often polluted industrial lands and rundown neighborhoods while integrating large numbers of immigrants. They share many indigenous resources: dynamic economic histories with a clear role of leadership in their greater metropolitan region, strong universities, legacies of strong civic culture as well as substantial physical assets including transportation networks, cultural institutions and housing stock. They also share an awareness of their precarious situation they share with other, older post-industrial cities.

Case Studies

Rotterdam: Rotterdam is blessed and plagued by its role in the larger European economy.

Because of its deep-water port and easy access to the rest of the world, two new coal-fired power plants are being built in the city, adding to the environmental challenge of the existing five oil refineries and coal burning power plant. Rotterdam’s air quality and quality of life is at the mercy of European consumption. To its advantage, Rotterdam has a centuries-old tradition of cooperation due to its great need to manage water: the Water Boards that manage the city’s dike system have been in existence since the 1500s, providing the coordination necessary to keep the Netherlands, much of which is below sea level, dry. When Al Gore’s movie, An Inconvenient Truth, came to Rotterdam it was seen by all school children and inspired a movement to fight climate change.. In particular, the scene where higher sea levels are shown inundating most of Holland motivated leadership at the highest

2 The Mayor at the time, to the surprise of his staff, pledged to reduce CO2 emissions by 50% by 2025, exceeding even the ambitious Kyoto Protocol targets. I was told that he wanted to have something substantial to show to ex-President Bill Clinton when he appeared in Rotterdam to speak.

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levels to pledge to prevent this from happening.3

Rotterdam was once the largest port in the world, and still serves as the most important port city in Europe. The city is in the process of building a new port 45 kilometers down river that will have the capacity to accept larger ships, thus enabling the city to pursue creative and economically viable new uses for its old port area near the city center and maintain its port function.

In response to the need for redevelopment in the urban core, and faced with increased flood risks due to climatic shifts, in 2007 Rotterdam created the Rotterdam Climate Initiative (RCI). RCI brought together public and private sector leaders including the Mayor, the head of DeltaLinqs, Rotterdam’s association of larger businesses, the Director of the Port, and the state environmental agency. This high level effort was led by ex-Prime Minister Ruud Lubbers to rebuild substantial parts of Rotterdam “for the benefit of people, the environment, and the economy.”

Despite the urgency of the international economic crisis, this high level commitment continues. RCI pursues strategies to utilize brownfields in the old port as well as other post-industrial space as hubs for green innovation. Strategies include establishing energy retrofit programs targeting low income, immigrant communities; continuing to invest in a transport system that emphasizes bicycle and transit use combined with tight urban growth strategies; using energy from power plants to power district heating in new suburbs and industrial areas; and capturing and using carbon dioxide from new power plants for greenhouse-based agriculture, replacing the natural gas that is currently burned.

3 This wasn’t limited to the public sector. I wasn’t able to find examples of catalytic leadership in Bologna. In fact, the representative of HERA, the energy/waste/water utility, never seemed to understand my question about collaboration with other sectors. Given that 60% of the energy they provide is imported, either as oil from Algeria or electricity from France, the specter of potential threats to supply would presumably trigger more strategic thinking.

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In the area of climate adaptation, a collaborative approach between the City, surrounding Water Boards and the national government led to the rapid development and adoption of a regional water plan that seeks to maximize economic and social benefits while coping with anticipated higher water levels. For example, some public plazas serve as shallow reservoirs for stormwater during high water events and as civic amenities the rest of the year.

However, the economic crisis has led to demands that every climate adaptation proposal show a positive return on investment (ROI). Further, shifts in public sentiment, evident in the rise of a nationalist, anti-immigrant and regulation-averse political party, are challenging the dominant Dutch paradigm of trust in government. This has led to more investment in public engagement and the re-framing of larger environmental initiatives like the RCI in terms of local quality of life improvements including reduced air pollution and increased local employment levels. For example, Populist politicians support actions that reduce car use when cast as reducing noise and pollution levels, even if they oppose similar regulations when cast as climate change mitigation.

Birmingham:Long a proud and prosperous industrial city, the “motor city of the UK,”

Birmingham is ambitious and eager for change. Currently, the manufacturing sector provides only 10% of local employment, due to the loss of major manufacturers like MG Rover and LDV. However, the region retains a huge knowledge base in automotive technology, showcasing world-renowned research from three major universities. 85,000 students attend “uni” in Birmingham, which gives the region a critical pool of talent to draw from: I was told that a Chinese company had purchased MG Rover for the sole reason of retaining the company’s 70 top designers. The Chinese were interested in bringing higher efficiency and low emission technologies to the Chinese automobile industry. This relationship is very positive for Birmingham’s future economic position as a knowledge-based economy rather than a manufacturing center.

Birmingham is the largest single municipality in all of Europe (over 1 million residents) but most of its financial resources are controlled by the national government, limiting their ability to re-direct money or use it in new ways that may serve multiple local objectives. Birmingham is also a very young city, born out of the

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Industrial Revolution, with a history of innovation typified by James Watt, inventor of the steam engine. Its tradition of “can-do-ism” is most similar to American entrepreneurial attitudes and is reflected in their efforts to transition away from a manufacturing to a knowledge-based economy.

Birmingham has robust collaboration between sectors exemplified by BE Birmingham (Birmingham Environment), managed by the non-profit organization, Sustainable West Midlands. This effort differs from Rotterdam’s Climate Initiative in that it does not have the same high level of commitment from all sectors toward a single goal of reducing carbon emissions. Nor does it have as influential a board of directors. Rather, BE is a grass-roots organization of companies that network and share energy-saving and other sustainability information to reduce their own costs and carbon emissions. Board members are drawn from mid-level leadership that tends to be more skeptical of climate change claims. BEBirmingham staff were pushed to develop clear ROI indicators for carbon reduction initiatives, in the end strengthening their programs.

The major driver for growing a low-carbon economy in Birmingham is not climate change but rather the combined threat of domestic fossil fuel depletion and growing dependence on foreign sources of fuel in the UK. There is considerable government and community concern that rising energy prices will result in greater “fuel poverty” defined as when a household spends more than 10% of its income on energy, exacerbating social inequalities and tensions. From the perspective of utilities, the motivations for growing a low carbon economy arise from the very low profit margin in re-selling traditional forms of energy (~1%) and the high potential return in selling energy services such as conservation, conversion to renewable sources or building district heating schemes (15-20%)4. (In UK as well as Italy, distribution grid is owned by one entity and energy companies compete to sell energy to consumers and industry.) Local businesses see rising energy prices as affecting their ability to compete globally.

4 One of their successes has been to bring RyanAir to Bologna through making significant infrastructure and operational improvements to the regional airport resulting in 1 million new passengers arriving in Bologna.

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Birmingham has developed a number of initiatives to combat climate change while improving the local economy. Income inequality and its impact on civic health and the environment is a strong motivator among activists in the UK, which, like the United States, has high levels of income inequality and social dysfunction. These have required creating new types of partnerships across sectors and communities. For example, Birmingham has high poverty and immigration levels, leading to increased social tensions as the traditional pathways to prosperity through well-paid, low-skilled manufacturing are closed. Mistrust of large energy companies and general disdain for government in the UK undercut Birmingham’s first energy retrofit campaigns using traditional, top down means. One successful approach that Birmingham has used is contracting with nonprofit partners (Friends of the Earth Birmingham) to reach out through faith communities. They brought leaders in the Muslim community to visit a synagogue to see the solar panel installations. This has the simultaneous effect of bridging cultural divides while engaging community leaders in important discussions about energy and climate change. This has inspired first steps towards more extensive cross-sector collaboration and public engagement (Energy Savers) supporting new campaigns to weatherize buildings and install renewable energy (called the “Green New Deal” that emphasizes employing community members, similar to Portland’s Clean Energy Works). Another unconventional partnership is between a national television program focused on sustainability and localism (River Cottage) and British Gas, formerly the national energy company, now privatized.

Birmingham’s efforts are also affected by national politics. 2010 brought the first Tory government in over 20 years. Focused on economic opportunity more than on environmental issues, Prime Minister David Cameron’s concept of a Big Society does include recognition of climate change and the dangers of energy insecurity. Additionally, the new government has supported continued investment in renewable energy as well as renewed oil and gas exploration.

Bologna:Bologna, Italy is a long-time center of localism. The city’s citizens take great

pride in their traditional foods—including Parma ham, Reggiano cheese and Sangiovese wine—and agricultural practices, and the region leads Europe in organic food production. Bologna benefits greatly from European Union initiatives and funding but has a very fragmented governance system. Of the three, Bologna has the least immigrants but the greatest difficulty integrating them.

Similar to Rotterdam and Birmingham, Bologna has historically been a center of trade by virtue of its geographic location at the rail and highway crossroads of Italy. While shrinking as a percentage of Bologna’s economy, manufacturing – particularly of local agricultural products, automobiles, and motorcycles – is still a major component of the region’s economy. As a result, Bologna has some of the worst air quality in Europe. To the extent that emission levels violate EU regulations, this threatens EU funding for economic development. On the other hand, in the past the EU has funded many Bolognese adaptation initiatives ranging from solar installations on schools, tree planting, bike sharing and biogas facilities.

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The global economic crisis is affecting Bolognese climate actions because of their high reliance on the EU for their sustainability initiatives. National funds are also being reduced, including money for public investment as well as subsidies for renewable energy production. The public sector in the Bologna region appears to be oversized, redundant and poorly integrated. In addition, despite some very innovative policies and programs (e.g.; feed-in tariff, car-sharing, congestion pricing), many other good ideas are dropped due to lack of public adoption. This appears to be primarily due to a low level of civic involvement and a history of top-down implementation as well as unfamiliarity with the usefulness of marketing. For example, when I spoke to the person responsible for the car and bike sharing in Bologna, he said that very few people used the service despite what appeared to be ideal conditions; high density, car restrictions, and high cost of car ownership. When queried about what level of outreach and advertising was done to promote the program he responded that his job was to create the program, not to engage the public. The advantage of collaboration to take advantage of sectorial strengths is clear here: American car-sharing started in Portland, Oregon in the 1990s as a joint effort of the government (capital, research) and private sector (promotion, marketing).5

Despite the generally lower level of intentional collaborative efforts, there are several business leaders that are advocating for government reform and pushing for new partnerships in the area of energy, climate change and economy. For example, the major business organization, Unindustria Bologna, is pushing for consolidation of government at the regional level to reduce redundancy of services and lack of coordination. Unindustria Bologna is also engaging directly with mayors throughout Emilia Romagna (the province) in order to facilitate development efforts and focus transportation investments.6

5 These were mandated by national law 15 years ago but were not being implemented because of lack of upfront capital investment for necessary infrastructure. Unindustria successfully introduced special financing programs that made these parks viable and desirable.

6 In the US, the business community strongly resisted the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts despite scientific evidence and the damaging effects of air and water pollution on communities and the economy. Similarly in Europe, concerns about pollution were seen as impeding the recovery from WWII. In Portland, National Geographic Magazine featured the Willamette River as a river so polluted it was devoid of life. Today, salmon run through downtown and waterfront land is filled with parks and development rather than being shunned as a stinking sewer. The results were greatly improved

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Developing eco-industrial parks is another initiative of Unindustria that connects economic opportunity and energy savings with the added benefit of carbon emissions reduction. In these developments, resources such as energy, water, site management and security are shared, and an effort is made to link companies that are in each other's supply chain or that can use waste products from another company’s production line.7 Companies are motivated by the savings that could be realized by lower costs. In addition, these parks can facilitate synergies between businesses as well as convey a progressive, green element to the brands of resident companies.

There is also a small but growing movement to promote collaboration among businesses led by a nonprofit corporate responsibility organization, Impronta Etica (IE). IE works with a network of companies to reduce energy use and carbon emissions through information sharing and mentoring. The provincial government also supports a research agen cy to provide data and planning advice to local governments--including on energy and climate change--that is pioneering public involvement in planning. While the partnership has been considered a success in terms of gaining public support and building community engagement, its conclusions are only advisory and they struggle to overcome institutional inertia, a cult of the expert, and a historically-closed, decision-making process.

Common Takeaways Sustainability is no longer a buzzword or branding strategy but an essential

characteristic of future economies. Making the transition to a low-carbon economy is seen as an urgent and necessary step by key individuals such as Hans Smits, head of the Port of Rotterdam, and Sam Laidlaw, CEO of British Gas. They are leading their organizations, and in some cases, their communities, in strategizing on how a low-carbon economy might be implemented. However, much of the business community, as well as the general public, remain skeptical of the need for collective action on climate change as a stand-alone driver for change.

quality of life, improved health, recovery of eco-systems, opening of new economic opportunities not just in clean up technologies but in new uses for “waste” products and greater efficiencies. This shared experience of coping with a similar environmental crisis provides a common story that can be adapted for the current challenges, although the passage of forty years means that few have direct experience (in junior high I helped plan our first Earth Day teach-ins).

7 Stern Review (30 October 2006) Sir Nicholas said today: “The conclusion of the Review is essentially optimistic. There is still time to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, if we act now and act internationally. Governments, businesses and individuals all need to work together to respond to the challenge. Strong, deliberate policy choices by governments are essential to motivate change. But the task is urgent. Delaying action, even by a decade or two, will take us into dangerous territory. We must not let this window of opportunity close.”

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Responding to the linked issues of energy and climate can be a tremendous economic opportunity. This is especially true for regions that have undergone radical economic restructuring as manufacturing has moved overseas. The opportunity has two major components: the potential for energy and financial savings from reducing use of increasingly scarce and expensive fossil fuels; and the opportunity to develop and market new technologies and processes that allow switching from a high carbon/high energy economy to a low carbon/low energy one. 8

Climate Change is a real issue. In all city-regions there is a strong awareness of climate change as an issue, across all sectors. In particular the strong emotional impact of the Al Gore produced movie, An Inconvenient Truth, motivated many to higher levels of activity. This built on the many years of work by environmental movements and agencies but was cited repeatedly as bringing climate change to the fore of the leadership agenda.

Money is tight and makes taking action harder. The global economic crisis has diminished actions on climate due to funding restrictions and new demands for economic returns. The Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change in UK (and to a lesser extent in other areas) was powerful in answering many critics’ concerns, but ROI analysis is demanded on the project level. Some see the energy crisis as a driver for economic crisis that needs to be solved at the same time. But the two crises also complicate each other because high energy costs reduce resources needed for investment and stress an already strained economy. Up-front capital costs and lack of financing stops many investments in renewable energy, water management and conservation.

We’ve done this successfully before. All cities, including Portland, can point to success in dealing with major environmental challenges in the past. As a result of rapid growth and lax environmental standards, pollution became a major problem in the mid-20th century. Strong regulations were adopted in all countries despite strong concerns raised by business that the cost of reducing emissions would destroy the economy. 9

It’s about the economy, stupid. Given the severe economic crisis, and fear of greater collapse, responding to climate change is not seen as driver for changing investments and policy, rather as another “factor” or requirement to be met. Not all sectors or leaders see the connection between climate change, energy and economy, complicating the work of advocates and staff. In Rotterdam and Birmingham organizations (Sustainable West Midlands and DRIFT) are addressing this blind spot intentionally through collaborative processes that consciously link these issues through a sustainability framework. They target

8Http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2009/09/nike_leaves_us_chamber_of_comm.htmlwww.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/.../10/.../AR2009100502744.html

9 The Mayor at the time, to the surprise of his staff, pledged to reduce CO2 emissions by 50% by 2025, exceeding even the ambitious Kyoto Protocol targets. I was told that he wanted to have something substantial to show to ex-President Bill Clinton when he appeared in Rotterdam to speak.

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elected officials, and key members and leaders in the academic and private sector. Impronta Etica is a nascent collaboration incubator in Bologna, using interest in corporate responsibility to engage the business community with government and NGOs in efforts to reduce carbon emissions through conservation. They are just beginning efforts to include equity in their collaborative framework.

It’s about quality of life, stupid. Despite the calls by some to focus more on economic return, support remains high for actions that are seen as directly benefiting their constituents such as reducing local noise and pollution, and in the case of Rotterdam, preventing costly flooding. There is strong public support for parks, local sourcing of food, traffic calming, parking restrictions, urban gardening, neighborhood revitalization and improved education, especially for immigrant populations. (There is a lot of concern about difficulties of immigrants to acculturate into the dominant society and effective engagement was the exception, leading to some failures.)

Leadership matters. Having high level buy-in and leadership can be a catalyst and “glue” to hold collaborative actions together over time. The role of Ruud Lubbers was cited again and again in Rotterdam as leader of the RCI and he continues to be an international force on climate change response. In the UK, the CEO of British Gas as well as others in the business community (BP before the Gulf oil spill) argues emphatically and effectively that the world has changed and therefore their companies and society must change as well. British Gas has changed its business model to move away from simply delivering energy to providing energy services including renewables and conservation.

Road aheadStrong forces are pushing us toward a low carbon economy. We know the high

cost of doing nothing to address climate change.10 The fuels that we depend on to run our cities and economies are drying up. And we have some pretty influential leaders who “get it” and are trying to move their communities forward. Action is happening on many fronts, so why not in America? What messages might work to engage and motivate leaders here to seize the opportunities seen by leaders like Hans Smits (Port of Rotterdam) and Richard Laidlaw, CEO of British Gas?

The widespread need for and value of energy efficiency investments is an argument that resonates in all sectors: for business, every penny not spent on overhead is profit, for homeowners it means more comfort and a higher quality of life, for governments it is more resources for delivering the programs that taxpayers expect and for institutions like hospitals and universities it means more resources to carry out their missions. Energy saving products will need to be designed,

10 One of their successes has been to bring RyanAir to Bologna through making significant infrastructure and operational improvements to the regional airport resulting in 1 million new passengers arriving in Bologna.

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produced and installed: creating jobs ranging from high pay, high skill engineers to good, entry level jobs doing jobs like weatherizing houses.

All four cities have the opportunity to be centers of innovation for technologies that respond to these global issues and therefore open up a global market. Each has universities with strong engineering and design departments as well as traditions of manufacturing to draw upon. The bulk of manufacturing will be done elsewhere but there is a deep pool of highly educated and trained people in these cities that could design the technologies of the future. But, as the director of Birmingham’s economic development office put it, it’s a matter of who’s there first. This is a market that is being pursued everywhere and a focused strategy to develop and support indigenous businesses is necessary to benefit from demand for new energy sources and technologies.11

Dependence on foreign energy sources is a great problem in Europe, where most domestic supplies of energy have been exhausted. But even in America, we import 60% of our oil supply upon which 98% of our transportation vehicles depend. Oregon exports close to $10 Billion annually for energy and is 100% dependent on imported oil. Switching to renewables and reducing consumption would lessen the risk of economic shock from future rising prices and constriction on supply.

Just as the heavy industrial pollution of the 19th and early 20th century became unacceptable, an economic model that wastes energy and produces life-threatening levels of carbon will have to change. And, like that transition, there is plenty of economic opportunity to be had in furthering the change to a low carbon economy.

What does this mean for Portland and AmericaHow and why does the American approach to climate and energy challenges

differ so much from European efforts? Why isn’t there leadership arising from the American business community in face of clear threats to profitability, increasingly severe weather events, and increasingly unpredictable energy cost and supply? In a culture of entrepreneurship, where is the Steve Jobs of energy efficiency that recognizes the tremendous economic opportunities in solving this challenge to our civilization? There are a few leading companies like such as Nike that have left the American Chamber of Commerce over that organization’s opposition to action on climate change legislation, but this has not swayed or inspired the majority of the business world nor the business community in Portland.12 Oregon’s major energy

11 These were mandated by national law 15 years ago but were not being implemented because of lack of upfront capital investment for necessary infrastructure. Unindustria successfully introduced special financing programs that made these parks viable and desirable.

12 Stern Review (30 October 2006) Sir Nicholas said today: “The conclusion of the Review is essentially optimistic. There is still time to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, if we act now and act internationally. Governments, businesses and individuals all need to work together to respond to the challenge. Strong, deliberate policy choices by governments are essential to motivate change. But the task is urgent. Delaying action, even by a decade or two, will take us into dangerous territory. We must not let this window of opportunity close.”

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companies are still pushing fossil fuel power plants13 as well as the export of coal and natural gas.

Could it be the culture of abundance unique to the American experience—cheap land, almost unimaginable quantities of natural resources including coal, gas and oil—that makes it difficult for us to imagine natural resources are limited? In addition, there is new community resistance to policies that require changes in behavior and investment, fueled by national politics, certainly, but perhaps also because the American dream seems to be fading for so many.

People are also naturally reluctant to change when the change being proposed is as fundamental as reconfiguring our economy. Like here, many older leaders in Europe aren’t convinced of the necessity for change or may believe the only required response is to just get better at current processes rather than re-think approaches. The high cost in of transitioning to a low- carbon economy is clear, but the return is not.

On the plus side, America has a strong recent history of responding successfully to environmental threats. Here in Portland, the story of the regeneration of the Willamette River from a dead sewer to a place for where salmon thrive and where people play in riverside parks is a founding myth that may serve as a model for how to talk about these issues.

13Http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2009/09/

nike_leaves_us_chamber_of_comm.htmlwww.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/.../10/.../AR2009100502744.html

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