The move towards alternative types of futures is already happening. “There are no communities waiting for people to come and save them,” said Sarah Shanley Hope, vice president of Project Solutions. She describes a concept known as “multi-dealing” – how technologies like solar panels can provide not only green energy, but jobs and energy savings as well. Those combined interests allow climate projects to become catalysts, prompting grassroots organizations to introduce policies that make green projects more accessible to communities on the front lines of change. climate. Climate action, she said, is about “caring for the community”.
Colette Pichon Battle, an activist and attorney from Southern Louisiana who leads visions and initiatives at Taproot Earth, a climate justice organization, urged audiences to think outside of an economic system. Economic and social conditions can encourage the devastation of individual communities. “It sacrifices people like me,” she said. “It sacrifices places like the South.” The transition to green energy cannot simply repeat mining patterns. “We must stop telling ourselves this lie that switching from one form of repression to another will save us.”
Sometimes even individuals can take action that helps a wider system. Patricia Hidalgo-Gonzalez, a professor at UC San Diego, spoke about her research investigating how to keep the grid “greener” as more intense heat waves drive demand for air conditioning. . Earlier this month, text-message warnings encouraged Californians to save energy as the state’s power grid teeters on the brink of power outages. Hidalgo-Gonzalez says that shows how mass coordination can avert disaster. “Keep up the good work,” she told the audience — and please consider charging the electric vehicle during the day, when the sun is shining brightly.
In some cases, new technology will help alleviate some of the difficult trade-offs in climate policy. Want more batteries on the grid? Designs that use less lithium or cobalt are cheaper to source and easier to fabricate. Alan Ahn, a senior fellow at the Third Way, a consultancy, praised the designs for a new generation of smaller nuclear reactors that the industry hopes will be safer and generate less energy. more waste than those in operation today, making them a lot easier to build. And Jim McBride, co-founder and CTO of tech incubator Otherlab, talked about a technology called Sunshadea pneumatic system that can tilt and rotate solar panels and is cheaper than conventional motors, allowing for more efficient solar installations using the same space.
In the end, however, despite their technological glamor, such hardware projects are only part of the solution and are likely to lead to a difficult new policy discussion as they move forward. aside from an old project. As Mui put it, fighting climate change is “all about hard choices.” And sometimes, it’s all about getting the right permits.
