Visit us on the web! You'll find case studies, issues of the month, workshop materials, archived newsletters and updates on local government activities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Contra Costa County
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Join Our Mailing list!
info@cccclimateleaders.org
Contact us:
925.631.0597
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The 4CL Program offers:
Quarterly workshops for education and networking opportunities
Monthly newsletters for environmental updates, pertinent local information, and interesting upcoming events
Ongoing website containing the CCC city environmental developments, archived newsletters, and other educational resources
www.cccclimateleaders.org
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Newsletter Contributors:
Content:
Anne Cavazos
4CL Consultant
Editor:
Katherine Bracken
4CL Volunteer
Contributing editors:
Lynda Deschambault
Executive Director 4CL
Newsletter articles are collected from a variety of sources and are cited via a website reference when applicable
To add content or events to our next monthly newsletter, please send an email to
info@cccclimateleaders.org
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Funding
FHWA Funding Opportunity for Assessing Sustainable Transportation Projects - Multiple awards of approximately $25,000 to $150,000. Due: Anytime. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) seeks to partner with entities in using INVEST 1.0, a voluntary self-assessment tool, to assess and enhance the sustainability of their projects and programs. INVEST (Infrastructure Voluntary Evaluation Sustainability Tool) is a web-based collection of voluntary best practices and criteria designed to help transportation agencies integrate sustainable practices into their projects, plans, and programs. INVEST helps transportation agencies improve investment decisions while enhancing economic, social, and environmental outcomes. For more information, see the solicitation. To learn about INVEST 1.0, visit the INVEST website. USDA Farm to School Grant Program- $5 million Due: April 24, 2013 The purpose of the USDA Farm to School Grant Program is to assist implementation of programs that improve access to local foods in eligible schools. The program's grants help eligible schools foster sustainability by connecting with local agricultural producers and help improve the health and wellbeing of their students. For more information, visit the funding synopsis. Bikes Belong Community Partnership Grants. Due: May 24, 2013
The Bikes Belong Coalition welcomes grant applications from organizations and agencies within the United States that are committed to putting more people on bicycles more often. Fundable projects include paved bike paths, bike lanes, and rail-to-trails, as well as large-scale bicycle advocacy initiatives. View Grant Website. |
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Local City News
Livermore Going Green with Energy-Saving Projects. The city is embarking on a program to install solar panels at municipal buildings and convert existing streetlights to Light-Emitting Diode technology, as part of an energy-efficiency program officials say will save taxpayers more than $10 million over the next 25 years. Click for Full Article.
San Jose Receives 2013 Environmental Award. Acterra announced the awardees of their 2013 Business Environmental Awards. The San Jose Happy Hollow Park & Zoo received an award under the "Sustainable Build Environment" category. The 2013 awardees will be honored at the Business Environmental Awards Reception on Thursday, May 30, 2013 at Intuit Corporation in Mountain View, CA. Please email awards@acterra.org to receive an invitation to attend.
Pittsburg Competing In CoolCalifornia Challenge. The CoolCalifornia Challenge is a competition between California cities to motivate and reward residents for reducing their carbon footprints and helping to build more vibrant communities. Participants track driving and home energy use to earn points for being green. Finalist cities will be awarded recognition as "Cool California Cities" and be given $10,000 in seed money. Click to view the rankings.
Redwood City Safe Routes to School Reduces GHG Emissions. Climate Corps Bay Area reports that over 7,000 students participated in the San Mateo County Safe Routes to School program in the Redwood City School District. Roy Cloud School organized a 10,000-step challenge where students are given pedometers and during a weekend try to reach 10,000 steps. The challenge brought 230 students to participate during the Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, and they registered over 7,000,000 steps, equating to over 700 miles travelled. View the latest San Mateo County newsletter.
Windsor Receives National Award. The Windsor Efficiency PAYS® program received national recognition for its exceptional program that saves both energy and water. The programs offer water and energy upgrades to Windsor homeowners and renters without upfront costs. It allows participants to 'Pay As You Save®,' with no loan and no debt associated with repayment for select upgrades. Possible upgrade measures include high efficiency clothes washers, refrigerators, toilets, hot-water recirculation pumps, showerheads, and drought-resistant landscaping. Click for Full Article.
Regional Bicycle Share Pilot Project Bay Area Coming Soon. This August, a pilot bicycle share program will launch in the cities of San Jose, Palo Alto, Mountain View, Redwood City and San Francisco. The pilot system will launch in two phases. The first phase will deploy a fleet of approximately 700 bicycles and 70 kiosk stations and is anticipated launch in August 2013. Within 3-6 months after the first set of equipment has been deployed, it is anticipated that additional equipment will be added to grow the system to include a fleet of at least 1,000 bicycles. Click here for the full announcement.
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Other City News
Five Fantastically Green Cities Around the World. Criteria used to judge how green a city is are numerous and include energy consumption and emissions, transportation methods and green spaces or planning and sustainable buildings. These five cities including Reykjavik, Vancouver, Bogota, Barcelona, and Curitba working to balance the population's current needs with those required for future generations. View the Full Article.
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Legislation
Mandatory Building Energy Use Disclosure Program Kicks in This Summer. The present effective date of the regulations is July 1, 2013 for large buildings (more than 50,000 square feet (sf)); January 1, 2014 for medium buildings (more than 10,000, and up to 50,000 sf); and July 1, 2014 for small buildings (5,000 up to 10,000 sf). Anytime you finance, sell, or lease a whole building, you are required to run the Energy Star numbers and provide that information to the other party in the transaction as well as the Energy Commission. Click here for resources.
California and Quebec Connect Cap-and-Trade Programs. Organizations that trade in California's cap-and-trade program will also be able to trade in Quebec because they are connecting their programs. Governor Jerry Brown approved the proposal from California's Air Resources Board (ARB), which has been working for five years to develop compatible programs with Quebec. The two systems are expected to link January 1, 2014. By working together they can cut emissions more than either can do alone by increasing the size of the pool. Click to view the Full Article.
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Impacts
4CL Resilient Cities Workshop Presentations Now Available. Please visit the 4CL website to view the presentations from our February 28th "Creating Resilient Cities through Emergency Preparedness and Adaptation Strategies". Fellow Contra Costa County decision makers presented legislative and Program updates; resources and funding, other cities shared best practices and examples of how they are identifying their potential vulnerabilities and increasing their city resiliency so as to better adapt to inevitable impacts of climate change. Click to view the presentations.
Global Warming Worries Californians. A poll found that 64 percent of Californians believe global warming is happening and something should be done to fight it, with more than half of the respondents, 37 percent, deeming it a serious problem worthy of immediate action. Click for Full Article.
Regional Climate Scenarios and Projections of Sea Level Rise. EPA hosted a webinar with the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) that discussed the regional climate scenarios and global sea level rise scenarios developed as part of the National Climate Assessment. View the presentation slides and listen to the podcasts.
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Economics
EPA Nominee Calls Climate Change 'One of Greatest Challenges'. Combating climate change is "one of the greatest challenges of our generation," according to Gina McCarthy, who has been nominated to head the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The U.S. faces negative economic exposure from rising global temperatures and the EPA has the regulatory duty to address the problem under the Clean Air Act, said McCarthy. "We're doing it in common sense steps to ensure the economy can continue to grow," she said during a Senate confirmation hearing on April 11. View the Full Article. Climate Change Policy is 'Economic Opportunity. Nike, Starbucks, Ikea and 30 other companies are have signed a statement urging federal policymakers to take action on climate change by promoting clean energy, boosting efficiency and limiting carbon emissions. The companies involved say they're taking steps to reduce CO2 emissions, which is helping their businesses, and Washington should act, too. The Climate Declaration signatories provide approximately 475,000 US jobs and generate a combined annual revenue of approximately $450 billion, Ceres says. View the Full Article. Unhappy Returns: Climate Change's Big Tax on Americans. The U.S. Government Accountability Office warned that climate change is a "significant financial risk to the federal government." It threatens everything, not just federal lands and buildings, but food, flood and crop insurance, and disaster relief. And who pays for all of this? We do, the American taxpayers - a threat to the government's wallet is a threat to our own bottom line. Click here for the Full Article. |
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Science
Bumpier Flights-More Air Turbulence Over Atlantic. More pollution is likely to mean bumpier flights for trans-Atlantic travelers, researchers say, predicting increased turbulence over the North Atlantic as carbon dioxide levels rise. Climate experts ran a climate simulation that cranked up the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to twice its pre-industrial level. The results showed a 10-to-40 percent increase in the median strength of turbulence and a 40-to-170 percent increase in the frequency of moderate-or-greater turbulence. Click here for the Full Article.
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Upcoming Events
Climate Change Adaptation for State and Local Governments, Part III: - Attracting Funding for Adaptation. May 1, 2013, 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM PDT. This is the final installment in a three-part webcast series about climate change adaptation for state and local governments. This webcast will focus on how to secure funding for adaptation. Presentations will provide examples of how communities of various sizes have attracted funding and provide available resources for participants to identify appropriate funds. The experts who present on this webcast will discuss how to maximize funding by mainstreaming adaptation planning and how to simultaneously address adaptation and mitigation. Register at: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/869045530
The Big Dispute Over the Value of Solar PV. Wednesday, April 24, 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm, 2nd Floor Conference Rm, 436 14th Street (at Broadway), Downtown Oakland. The valuation of behind-the-meter (net metered) solar power is controversial, with utilities claiming that net metering customers are using the grid for free and passing on to other customers an unfair burden of transmission and distribution charges. Recent studies have disputed this, and the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) is due to publish its own findings this year. To learn more about this hot issue and its implications, attend the April general meeting of the Local Clean Energy Alliance.
The Fifth C40 Cities Mayors Summit. February 4-6 2014. Johannesburg. New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, Chair of the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group (C40) and Johannesburg Mayor Parks Tau announced that the city of Johannesburg, will host the Summit Hundreds of urban leaders from around the world will join mayors from the world's largest cities for three days to advance urban solutions to combat the impacts of global climate change. Combined, C40 cities have the potential to reduce future emissions by up to 1.3 billion tons by 2030. View C40 Event site.
WIPP Series on Climate Change: What Can Our Cities Do To Prevent Disaster? Government leaders can all learn some of the newest ideas and opinions related to building scale, neighborhood scale and regional infrastructure scale measures to reduce risk from storm surge, increased rainfall, sea level rise, and other threats. E3 202: Economics and Prevention - Best Options to Reduce Loss of Life and Property
Tuesday, April 16 at 9am PT /12pm ET - Register here. Linkages between direct impacts from disasters (such as Hurricane Katrina and Sandy) will be outlined. Financial impacts to private and government parties will be explored. E3 203: Financing Sounds Solutions - No Need to Create Federal Debt, Just Savings
Tuesday, May 14 at 9am PT/12pm ET - Register here. Trends in risk-based actuarially derived insurance policies, including the decline in public subsidies for premiums in high risk sites will be shared.
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