91% stay with MCE and have helped mitigate 199,295 metric tons of greenhouse gases! Those residents and businesses continuing with MCE's more renewable services will continue to offset even more carbon reductions in the future! Help reduce our carbon footprint even further by opting up to 100% renewable Deep Green today!

Only 6 CCC cities remain to join a CCA New statewide rules now impact the timeline to join a Community Choice program. If you want energy choices in Antioch, Brentwood, Clayton, Hercules, Orinda, or Pleasant Hill by 2020, then encourage your council to agendize an informational discussion on Community Choice as soon as possible, the deadline is September 1st.

City of  Concord bans all polystyrene food and beverage service ware to take effect in the new year. Concord joins El Cerrito, Hercules, Lafayette, Martinez, Pittsburg, Richmond, and Walnut Creek as the Eighth city to adopt such a ban. Styrofoam accounts for 25-30% of landfilled material but what doesn’t end up in a landfill finds its way into the ocean; over 5 trillion particles of polystyrene make up over 250,000 tons in the ocean. It is important that Concord passed this ban to stop this source of pollution. Learn more about polystyrene here.

The Renewable Resource Potential Study will inform how the unincorporated Contra Costa County changes zoning to facilitate development of renewable energy while preserving other priority land uses such as habitat, parks, agriculture, and jobs.  Several cities are taking advantage of the contract to look at potential in their jurisdictions. The results of the study should help MCE and others who want to develop renewable energy projects for commercial purposes in the County. Stakeholder Meeting #2 is happening Wed. July 25th 1-2:30 Location TBD. RVSP    Stakeholder Meeting #1 Notes                RRPS Overview 

Legislation

Climate Action Policy is being pursued locally by Republican Mayors. The Conversation conducted a study in conjunction with Boston University of 100 cities to determine the nature of climate policy at the local level. The study found that Republican mayors did support climate friendly policies but for economic and public health concerns rather than environmental ones. This shows that support for climate action policy has a bipartisan foundation.

The EPA just released an updated version of Energy Efficiency in Affordable Housing: A Guide for Developing and Implementing Greenhouse Gas Reduction Programs. This is a guide on making energy efficient building policy which outlines multiple benefits of energy efficiency, step by step approaches, key stakeholders, policy mechanisms, strategies for success, and financing opportunities. The guide, a part of the EPA’s Local Government Climate and Energy Strategy Series, also offers case studies along with links to technical resources, analytical tools, and sources of funding.

Other News 

The 86th annual Conference of the Mayors wrapped up in Boston last month with the commitment to combating climate change with effective policies. The flagship commitment of US Mayors to reach net zero building construction by 2050 in alignment with international goals was reached with unanimous bipartisan support. Listen to the hosting mayor of Boston Marty Walsh’s concluding thoughts on the conference in this short interview.

A new study by IMBIE found that over the past decade Antarctic ice has melted away at a rate three times that of the past, shattering the predictions of most previous studies. This suggests the effects of climate change may be striking sooner and more dramatically than some of our worse case scenarios.  The melting of sea ice creates a positive feedback loop of ocean warming and sea level rise. Washington Post synopsis HERE

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN just published its State of the World’s Forests report for 2018. The report outlines how critical forests are through 7 key qualities; supermarket, life insurance, water fountain, energy, superhero, carbon sink, and recreation. The International Institute for Sustainable Development connects the findings in this report around forest conservation to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

A new study from Global Forest Watch and The World Resource Institute found that 2017 was the second worst year on record for global tree cover loss. 2017’s loss of nearly 15 million hectares of tree cover was only about 1.5 million hectares short of the previous record for deforestation, which was set in 2016. The pressing nature of the issue of deforestation is addressed in detail in the UNFAO SOFO report. Learn more about protected land.

The town of Imperial Beach, CA is mounting a lawsuit against 37 Fossil Fuel companies including the giants of Exxon Mobil, Chevron and BP among others. A small coastal town already contending with the consequences of climate change, Imperial Beach is suffering from beach erosion of about 1 foot per year. They join Richmond along with the counties of San Mateo and Marin with many others around the nation adding to a litany of lawsuits against oil companies for various climate offenses.

Global Climate Action Summit, San Francisco, Sept. 12-14 Governor Jerry Brown is hosting a global conference on climate change focusing on the topics of healthy energy systems, inclusive economic growth, sustainable communities, land and ocean stewardship, and transformative climate investment. Save the date and learn more about the topics to be discussed.

Stakeholder Meeting #2 The Renewable Resource Potential Study Wed. July 25th, 1-2:30 Location TBD. RVSP

The UN is currently holding a High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development at the UN headquarters in New York which began July 9th ending on the 19th. This forum is to assess international progress on achieving the UN’s sustainable development goals as well as to aggregate data while also finding new strategies for collecting better data on sustainable development happening around the globe. Get a day by day breakdown of the event from Earth Negotiations Bulletin, an IISD project.