Comments for AK Climate Action Leadership Team

The following blog post is taken from comments delivered to the Governor’s Climate Action Leadership Team, in a listening session held in Anchorage on June 21, 2018.

The Case for Climate Change Action in Alaska

Climate Change

Climate Change is real.  It is primarily caused by human emissions of greenhouse gases.  It is already causing detrimental impact to people and the environment, and it will have serious consequences in the future. 

Climate change is occurring rapidly, and there may be unforeseen tipping points or feedback loops that cause even more rapid change.  Climate has a momentum of its own.  Even if we stopped all emissions of greenhouse gases today, climate change would continue to increase for decades, as the result of greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere.

Climate change is global.   Greenhouse gases released in any country disperse throughout the atmosphere and warm the entire globe.  Our decisions regarding carbon emissions affect people in other countries who have no say in what we do but still suffer the consequences.  The greatest harm from climate change will happen to future generations.  Likewise, they have no say in our decisions to continue business as usual or to reduce our carbon emissions.

Steps for Climate Action in Alaska

Alaska should develop an actual plan to reach milestones of 50% and 90% of electrical generation from renewable energy sources.  That plan should include engineering, cost estimates, and timetables.  The plan should use technologies that are proven, affordable, scalable, and timely.  The proposed plan must also have an acceptable environmental impact.  We should recognize that every energy project has some kind of environmental impact.  But doing nothing has a profound environmental impact, and renewable energy projects must be measured against the harsh consequences of continued climate change.  Hard choices are necessary and doing nothing is not an acceptable path.

Our electrical utilities need to work together to implement an area-wide renewable program.  We need to do what Chris Rose calls “setting the table”, in preparing for an area-wide transition to renewable energy.  We need a unified transmission system with significant upgrades.  And we need cooperative
behavior from the utilities for investments in new generation and the integration and dispatch of renewable electricity.

We need a tool for appraising the state’s progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.  The draft climate action plan makes a reference to the state’s emissions in 2005, but without any measure of where we stood then, or where we stand today.  I ask the state to create a profile of the state’s CO2 and methane emissions showing volumes, locations, sources, and history so we can understand where the biggest targets are for improvement.  Industrial sites and military bases are part of our overall emissions profile.

We should consider a carbon fee and dividend system like those already enacted in other states and Canadian provinces.  Such a fee would provide incentives to reduce carbon use, and for conversion to lower carbon alternatives.  Incentives for electrical or low-emissions vehicles are also needed.  These fees recognize the externalized costs of carbon emissions.

In the global picture, there is little that Alaska can do to change the trajectory of climate change.  Therefore, we must take steps toward adaptation to a new arctic climate.  The state should prepare an overall risk assessment for communities in the state, both large and small.  The risk assessment should be publicly available as a tool for civic and state planning for adaptation.

Alaska is an exporter of fossil fuels.  As of now, the world is still dependent on fossil fuels for the global economy, and Alaska is still financially dependent on exports.  We need to take action to reduce those dependencies so that we can reduce and eliminate fossil fuel use in the shortest possible time.

We should look at ways to influence renewable energy beyond Alaska’s borders.  The best way to achieve significant change is to offer something better than the status quo. 

Alaska has world-leading experience in the integration of wind with electrical micro-grids.  We can export that experience to other remote locations, and help reduce other emissions.  Expanded global use of renewables will also create shortfalls in critical materials, such as rare-earth elements for wind power and electric vehicles.  It’s possible that Alaska can provide those necessary materials, to help reduce emissions in other places. 

Conclusion

The process to bring about additional renewable energy is simple.  We need to identify the obstacles to renewable energy and study those obstacles from the perspective of different stakeholders.  And then we need to cooperatively knock down the barriers.

David MacKay, author of Sustainable Energy Without the Hot Air, writes, “If we all do a little bit, we will only do a little bit.”  Token actions do not result in significant change.  We need large, serious actions to change the course of climate change.  

Governor Walker and Lt. Governor Mallott should be credited for beginning this process for the state of Alaska.  Alaska’s Congressional delegation should likewise acknowledge the truth of climate change and its human causes and consequences.

Doug Robbins   6/20/2018