Please sign up with the CoolCalifornia City Challenge at coolclimate.berkeley.edu/challenge. Claremont will appreciate your help!
The California Air Resources Board created this Challenge to get as many people as possible to cut back on energy use and support California’s greenhouse gas reduction goals. Ten cities are participating, including Claremont. $50,000 will be divided among them based on the number of people (households) that sign up by the end of May – about $20 for each. Residents who register will be invited to earn points by reporting gas and electricity usage, and miles driven. You will be invited to take a survey and share ideas about saving energy. There’s at least another $50,000 in prizes to be awarded when the Challenge ends on August 31. The city with the most points will be crowned “The Coolest California City”, with lots of publicity, at an awards ceremony in Sacramento. So far Riverside leads in the Challenge which started on April 1, but Claremont is second and coming up fast. It’s fun to participate and see how your energy use and mileage compare with the averages for our area. Claremont could get $30,000 or more for community sustainability projects. So please go to coolclimate.berkeley.edu/challenge, click on “register”, and its easy from there.
In 2006, the California Legislature passed and Governor Schwarzenegger signed AB 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, which set the 2020 greenhouse gas emissions reduction goal into law. It directed the California Air Resources Board to begin developing discrete early actions to reduce greenhouse gases while also preparing a “scoping plan” to identify how best to reach the 2020 limit. This CoolCalifornia City Challenge is part of that plan. It’s supported by the Air Resources Board, administered by researchers at the CoolClimate Division of the University of California's Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory, and funded through partnership with the Energy Upgrade California™ initiative.
The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) just released a report that documents the seriousness and certainty climate change impact much more strongly than they have in the past. Aggressive world-wide action in the next decade is essential if global warming is to be held within the present two degrees Centigrade target. With AB 32, California is doing its part. Claremont is a leader among California cities with our Sustainable City Plan and the great success of programs like CHERP to make homes more energy efficient and comfortable. CHERP started here and is being adopted in other cities throughout California.
Claremont could be the “Coolest City”.
Demystifying Sustainability is an initiative of Sustainable Claremont (sustainableclaremont.org).