Malibu Mayor Reluctantly Signs Climate Protection Agreement

BY BILL KOENEKER

A disinclined Mayor Jeff Jennings said he was signing the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection agreement at the behest of the rest of the council majority, but voted against the resolution that commits mayors to take an active role in achieving the Kyoto Protocol goals.

Signed by at least 600 mayors, the agreement commits cities to agree to apply energy-efficient sustainable building practices to building codes and land use policies, increase recycling and alternative transportation options, improve wastewater system efficiency and educate the public on ways to reduce global warming pollution.

Jennings said, during a lengthy preamble to his no vote, he was not convinced that carbon reduction would bring about the perceived needed changes.

Jennings said there is no analysis of the costs and benefits of the various schemes to reduce carbon footprints and that there is no real analysis of what the reduction projections are for the state or the country.

Councilmember Sharon Barovsky said she agreed that the agreement is largely symbolic and said that if the mayor did not want to sign the statement, then maybe it should be signed by the Mayor Pro tem Pamela Conley Ulich.

“If it turns out you are right 50 years from now, we can beat up on Pam,” added Barovsky.

Conley Ulich said she wholeheartedly endorsed the measure and agreed with Jennings that more research and development needs to be undertaken to get a handle on what many believe is the human factor of carbon emissions that is leading to climate change.

Jennings had earlier said the cost of the recommendations are in the trillions of dollars, and there is no guarantee that results would lead to a significant drop in the temperature.

“The assumption is that warming is the result of human activity. A lot of what has gone into this is not testable. I think the problem is with the assumptions. It assumes no technological change,” added the mayor.

Jennings said what he meant is akin to what happened in the 19th Century when horse drawn carriages proved to be a growing problem in the cities because of the increasing amount of manure. The analogy is that no one at the time contemplated how quickly that problem would change when the automobile was introduced.

The mayor said it might be more productive to put the money into research and development and come up with a suitable technology instead of reduction.

The protection agreement calls on the feds and state government to enact policies and programs.

The agreement calls for the federal and state governments to enact legislation to meet or beat the target of reducing global warming pollution levels to seven percent below 1990 levels by 2012.

The statement also urges Congress to enact greenhouse gas reduction laws that provide clear-cut timetables and emissions limits and a market-based system of tradable allowances among emitting industries. The agreement also calls for cities to meet or excel Kyoto Protocol targets for reducing global warming pollution by taking a laundry list of actions.

Councilmember Ken Kearsley called the mayor’s agreement a “kiss-your-sister” measure and emphasized the agreement does not urge a signing of the Kyoto Protocol.

Kearsley talked about another complaint of the mayor concerning China’s role in the agreement. “I don’t understand that China is not even [on CO2 emission goals] with the U.S,” he added.

Jennings said another problem with the resolution is that it has no way of dealing with what he called leakage.

The mayor explained that China is now responsible for 62 percent of the CO2 production which this year exceeded the U.S. emissions. “China sells to us. If we really want to look at the CO2 footprint, we need to look at our relationship with China,” he said.

The mayor stressed that “I will express the will of the council, but I wanted to get [my viewpoint] on record.”