Welcome to the New America Foundation’s Climate Program Blog. This weekly snapshot will offer insights into the most effective climate solutions around the U.S. and the world. We’ll also ask guest bloggers to give us their analysis and provocative suggestions for getting these solutions into practice -- before it’s too late.

You might be asking yourself why I would mention “U.S.” and “climate solutions” in the same sentence, considering that while we are 5% of the world’s population and generate over 25% of the world’s greenhouse gases, we are the only industrialized nation that has refused to ratify the Kyoto accord. The good news is that the U.S. contribution to battling climate change is taking shape in municipal, state, and regional governments, despite the lack of any contribution by our federal leadership.

I think that telling this story is important to solving the climate crisis worldwide. I think we can agree that solving the climate change challenge depends on getting greenhouse gases slashed in the U.S., but also in China, India, and the other emerging economies. Former Prime Minister Tony Blair told me (in 2006 and again on his last day in office in 2007) that his work with the leaders of those countries has taught him that China and India won’t budge until they see the greenhouse gas leader - - the U.S. -- go first. Therefore, in his view, getting the states to take the action that the feds won’t is the key to making progress in the U.S. and thereby forcing China and India to do likewise. In the end, that’s the exit strategy for this problem.

So if a greenhouse gas disappears from a smokestack and no one is there to witness it, did it really happen? OK, a bad revision of the tree-in-the-forest conundrum, but you get the idea -- we must show the world that the work is going on, no matter where it’s happening, so that others join and we finally avert an even greater crisis.

One blog may not tell all of that story, but each week we’ll bring you a new chapter and new inspiration. Please join us and contribute your thoughts.

Thanks

Terry Tamminen
Cullman Senior Fellow and Director of the Climate Program
New America Foundation