Clean Air-Cool Planet is the Northeast's leading nonprofit organization dedicated to finding and promoting solutions to global warming.
Clean Air-Cool Planet is the Northeast's leading nonprofit organization dedicated to finding and promoting solutions to global warming.
| Special Conference Edition: CLIMATE SOLUTIONS FOR THE NORTHEAST 
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Leadership Stories Presenters at the Climate Solutions conference will address a range of relevant topics.
Former New Hampshire Governor Jeanne Shaheen is best known for leadership on the environment. She spearheaded the nation's first joint effort to reduce pollution emitted by her state's three major fossil-fuel power plants. The Clean Power Strategy, enacted in January of 2001, saw the governor forge a coalition of politicians, environmental activists, and public health workers to develop legislation aimed at cutting down on multiple pollutants. She was also one of the prime movers in environmental efforts at the New England Governors Conference, leading, in 2001, to the New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers climate action plan. Ann Weaver Hart, President, University of New Hampshire: What are the obstacles and the benefits of undertaking climate action and advocacy on campuses? The University of New Hampshire has a broad spectrum of efforts underway, including groundbreaking energy conservation measures, a campus-wide, multi-faceted Sustainability Program, and the world-renowned research Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans and Space. John DeStefano, Mayor, City of New Haven: The City of New Haven, Ct.—a member of Cities for Climate Protection—has taken a number of aggressive steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Mayor DeStefano will join a Monday plenary discussion on policy leadership, while a breakout on Tuesday will feature a panel of mayors—moderated by Mayor Peter Clavelle of Burlington, Vt. They will discuss the unique position of cities and towns in addressing many of the planning and policy issues that get at the heart of climate change solutions. Breakout Spotlight Just two of the nine breakout sessions at Climate Solutions for the Northeast demonstrate the breadth and depth of this conference: One, Effective Communication for Global Warming Solutions (Monday afternoon), will help anyone dealing with the climate change issue—from environmental organizations to city planners and green corporations—create an accurate and effective message. Transport Solutions: Beyond Tailpipes (Tuesday morning) covers the full range of options: vehicle technologies, fuel alternatives, measures to reduce vehicle miles traveled (VMTs) and restructuring communities in ways that help eliminate motor vehicles. The communications breakout, chaired by Joe Keefe, president of NewCircle Communications, includes nationally known political strategist Mark Mellman of The Mellman Group, Cindy Luppi, organizing director of the Clean Water Fund, and Mary Tkach, vice president of environmental sustainability for the Aveda Corporation. Stephanie Pollack, acting president of the Conservation Law Foundation, will moderate the transportation breakout. Rob Sargent, senior energy policy analyst with the National Association of State PIRGs, will discuss current and future choices for vehicles and fuels. Steve Winkelman, manger of transportation for the Center for Clean Air Policy, will detail long-range planning choices to reduce vehicle use, while Don Strait, executive director of The Connecticut Fund for the Environment, and Chris Bruhl, president of the Business Council of Southwestern Connecticut, will offer a joint presentation on business efforts to curtail VMTs in Connecticut’s crowded southwest corridor. |
MAJOR CLIMATE CONFERENCE TO BE HELD NEXT MONTH IN CONNECTICUT CEOs, mayors, university presidents and top environmental policymakers from across the Northeastern United States and Eastern Canada are invited to gather May 11 through 13 in Hartford, Connecticut to discuss the next steps in implementing state and regional climate action plans.
Made possible through a grant from the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation, Climate Solutions for the Northeast is being organized by Clean Air – Cool Planet. Conferees will address the business, public policy and communications issues at hand in the region’s drive to reduce the greenhouse gases emissions threatening its security, environment, public health, and economic viability. The conference is being held at the Hartford Hilton, a participant in the CERES Green Hotel Initiative. Registration and hotel information is available at www.cleanair-coolplanet.org/action/register_csn.php. Clean Air-Cool Planet will present its first Northeast Climate Leadership Awards during the conference. The awards will go to a campus, business and municipality exhibiting extraordinary leadership in emissions reductions. Among the keynote speakers who will address the 300 or so participants are Frank Cassidy, President and CEO of PSEG Power, and the Rev. Sally Bingham, Executive Director of the Regeneration Project. Amory Lovins, CEO of the Rocky Mountain Institute, will give the final keynote address at the Tuesday luncheon. At the conference, leading scientists and policy specialists will examine climate change impacts on the Northeast, and look at the state and regional action plans recently adopted to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the public and private sectors. Clean Air-Cool Planet has attracted dozens of decision-makers from cities and towns, campuses and business who understand the implications of continued climate change in the Northeast. In breakout sessions, these leading men and women will share the challenges they face in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and discuss the compelling reasons why reductions make sense for their organizations. The Connecticut Clean Energy Fund and PSEG are conference co-sponsors; KeySpan and SmartPowerCT are also providing generous support. A contribution from Shaw’s Supermarkets will offset carbon emissions related to travel and hotel operations for the conference.
For leaders interested in learning how climate change impacts and greenhouse gas reduction measures might relate to their businesses, Climate Solutions for the Northeast will offer a useful variety of speakers, breakout sessions and networking opportunities. Among the breakout session offerings:
Northeast companies are already leading the way in creating new and innovative energy technologies—while creating jobs, economic growth and expanded opportunity. This panel will focus on solar, wind, and fuel cell technologies and how together they represent a renewable hydrogen energy future, being shaped right here in the region by these and other visionaries.
These business leaders will discuss how their technologies will contribute to a better environment while creating shareholder value. They will talk about what companies like theirs are looking for from communities, towns, cities, and states in order to site manufacturing facilities and deploy their clean energy technologies in the Northeast.
Businesses of all sectors and sizes are recognizing the organizational value of addressing their own contributions to climate change. Want to learn more about the options and benefits available to your company? Plan to be here…
Corporations in the region are beginning to acknowledge, through annual environmental reports, economic exposure due to climate change. Some are motivated by the need to compete globally, and others by the threat of shareholder resolutions. Ask these leaders in the financial, insurance and investment worlds, and they’ll tell you—business can’t afford NOT to act on climate issues.
Among the topics to be discussed by these heavy hitters from the nation’s seventh largest bank, the Coalition for an Environmentally Responsive Economy, and Wall Street, will be anticipated changes in their lending, investment, and underwriting practices; implications for their customers; risk reduction (both mitigation and adaptation) and the need for financial industry response and preparations.
Reminder: Reserve Hotel Rooms by April 18 The Hartford Hilton has reserved a limited number of rooms for conference attendees at a nightly rate of $89.00. This block of rooms is available only until April 18. To reserve accommodations at conference rate, call Hilton Hartford Hotel 1-860-728-5151 or click here for online reservations
Co-sponsored by:
Supported by:
|
Amory
B. Lovins, chief executive officer of Rocky Mountain Institute,
is a consultant experimental physicist educated at Harvard and
Oxford.
The
Rev. Sally Grover Bingham, Founder of The Regeneration Project,
is a priest in the Episcopal Diocese of California and has been
the chair of its Commission for the Environment for the last eight
years.
Frank
Cassidy, President and Chief Operating Officer of PSEG Power LLC,
since 1999, was previously President and Chief Executive Officer
of PSEG Energy Technologies.
