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Aspen Environment Forum Top Ten: An Earth Day Crash Course in Energy

China takes the lead
 “It’s not a G-20 answer or a G-8 answer; it’s a G-2 answer: Its all about China and the United States," said James Rogers, president and CEO of Duke Energy. In both CO2 emissions and mitigation, China has raced ahead of the U.S., according to some experts. Since 1990, CO2 emissions in the U.S. have grown by 17 percent, while in China they've grown 150 percent, explained Christopher Flavin, president of the environmental nonprofit Worldwatch Institute. On the other hand, the advances in China's energy policy have outpaced any other country, Flavin added, citing national targets for emissions and renewable energy use.

Carbon capture
Coal is still king, and production is expected to grow as much as 60 percent in the next 25 years. Forty-six percent of global coal production comes from China, where nearly two coal-fired power plants are built weekly. In a world that won't quit coal and other fossil fuels, many experts, and President Obama's administration, are focusing some of their energy on improving carbon capture and sequestration technologies. By some estimates, being able to grab CO2 and inject it into the ground could reduce CO2 emissions from coal-fired plants by 90 percent.

Energy for all
The planet's 6.5 billion energy users are expected to grow to 9 billion by 2050. In many developing countries, nearly 75 percent of fuel comes from burning wood–relatively low in carbon emissions but potentially damaging to ecosystems and long-term economic stability. According to experts at the Aspen Environment Forum, decentralized solar and wind energy could provide the solution, shedding cooking and reading light around the world.

Big ideas
Elliott Laws, senior counsel in the Washington, D.C. office of Crowell & Moring, gives legal and policy advice on environment and energy issues. During the closing session of the Forum, Laws advised participants to think big, replace coal with solar, start acting now, and "not make the perfect the enemy of the good."

Green jobs and a green economy
 “It’s easy to sell people on clean energy when there’s job creation,” said Bill Ritter, Governor of Colorado, at the Forum. But at the same time, green job gurus such as Jerome Ringo of the Apollo Alliance—a coalition of labor, business, environmental, and community leaders working to catalyze a clean energy revolution—said that these jobs won't be possible until there is policy in place, as well as a financial investment. "The stimulus is a down payment on this new green economy," said Ringo. But to reach the 5 million new jobs the movement wants to see, both the public and private sector will have to invest more in research and development, he added.

We already have the technology
Whether you are talking about solar or wind power, carbon capture, electric cars, or emergency climate engineering, scientists and policy makers echoed the message that the technology exists now to start making significant changes. Regarding solar energy, Daniel Nocera, director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Solar Revolutions Project, said: "We can use a lot now. There is not one thing we need to invent. Why do we need [research and development]? To make it cheaper, cheaper, cheaper. It will fail without."

Regulation, policy, regulation, funding, policy
Along with green jobs, the best intentioned clean energy technologies won't get very far without government incentives and private sector investment in research and development, according to several speakers at the Forum. Discussing wind energy, Alexander Karsner, former assistant secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at the U.S. Department of Energy, said: "We have pushed the technology and need to continue to push and invest. But the price has gone up because of the unpredictable policy. The tech push is insufficient without a price signal for demand pull. And we won't see the green jobs revolution if we don't see more than these intermittent tax credits." Many Forum participants suggested a carbon tax or cap and trade scheme might be the solution to stabilizing prices.

Conserve
While lawmakers and business leaders work on the funding, research, and legal framework, many experts are advocated for conservation. Making homes and offices more energy efficient is a big business. According to Miranda Anderson, director of corporate affairs for sustainability at Wal-Mart (which sees more than 125 million customers a week), the company has made it a policy to market, and make affordable, home energy efficiency products such as weather stripping for windows and doors, and compact fluorescent light bulbs. "I didn't think that the average American cared," Anderson said. "But Wal-Mart moms care. They want these products and to change the world for their kids.

Speak to your audience
“Energy efficiency is a new way to love your neighbor; it’s a new way to love your kids," Jim Ball, president and CEO of the Evangelical Environmental Network, told Forum participants.


The Aspen Forum was sponsored by the Aspen Institute, the National Geographic Society, Shell, Duke Energy, and General Motors.

—Tasha Eichenseher

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