I am so excited to follow the Copenhagen climate talks and to see what transpires at the conclusion of the summit.  With the recent revelations of emails leaking information  undercutting the evidence of anthropogenic climate change, I look forward to new interactions regarding climate change without drama.  Whether you feel strongly about global warming or just passionate about green building this is an event to remember. 

Our current administration is committed to creating green jobs, a key topic at Copenhagen, but it seems that the United States isn’t leading the way.  China and most of Europe are poised to embrace green as a way to expand new industries and create new jobs by developing new technology based on wind, solar, nuclear and low-emission energy.  We need strong leadership to get the US moving towards tackling our energy issues sooner rather than later.  This should include changing the thinking focused on global warming towards more thoughts on economics.

It looks like all the major players are looking for a new path for energy, turning away from a carbon based economy as a new market place.  This makes sense based on the fact that we have a limited source of oil and coal to sustain our standard of living.  Even naysayers might agree that sustainability makes sense given the financial benefits. Clearly parts of the US and other countries feel that the limits on green house gas emissions will hurt their ability to provide jobs and they are strongly fighting new restrictions on energy production. Yes the initial costs of developing wind, solar, bio-mass, clean coal, natural gas and other energy sources may cause the price of energy to rise short-term, but long-term, if the development is done in the United States, then the new technologies can be made and shipped overseas, therefore creating jobs not destroying them.

Funding for green development is strong in the US given Obama’s commitment to a new economy based on clean energy jobs. But I think that government funding coupled with higher taxes on energy and cuts in income taxes as well as more rebates will launch a green growth take off.  This will present a strong message domestically and internationally that we are committed to clean energy and the promotion of sustainability. 

The US and developing counties are eyeing new opportunities to create new economic ventures.  While poorer counties look to the developed world to fund green endeavors, I worry that the new technology will be transfered to other counties if we don’t act quickly.  If we fail to see this as a economic choice, not just a green thing to do, we will disable our ability to create a new infrastructure based on green jobs. Quicker action on the administrations part to overhaul existing policies in addition to a strong call for innovation in the development of new technologies that will cut fossil fuel use and carbon emissions, is key for us to see green job growth domestically.