Verdexchange Conference 2010

The 2010 Verdexchange Green Marketmakers Conference examines the leading climate change initiatives one month post Copenhagen.

Los Angeles, CA (1/26/10) One month after the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen and immediately before Obama’s State of the Union Speech, experts on climate change from around the world gathered at the Marriott Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles to better gauge and examine the rapidly emerging business opportunities for clean energy and green technology.

After a somewhat disappointing Copenhagen Summit which failed to deliver a global climate change agreement, panelists focused on advancing from Copenhagen by sharing their understanding of “game changing” impacts of new regulations and attitudes towards environmental sustainability.

Having attended various “green” conferences over the past year, none have had more of a global focus than this year’s Verdexchange Conference. While Zev Yaroslavsky, Los Angeles County Supervisor, mentioned that “we can start by working together on the county level,” it is important to pay attention to the dynamic of the global green energy market. This was one of the major issues addressed, considering the final two plenary sessions included panelists from Australia, Germany, Japan, China, Italy and Canada.

These sessions also proved to be the most robust, as Peter Beattie, Trade Respresentative for the Americas, and Woody Clark, Managing Director of Clark Strategic Partners, took shots at each other during a healthy but vigorous debate. This suggests that as seen by the outcome of Copenhagen and reiterated by Congressman Earl Blumenauer (Oregon), there is no clear and shared vision of what needs to be done, nor the political will to make the tough decisions required to combat climate change.

While Copenhagen was disappointing, the panelists did express a sense of certainty and optimism that this can be done. Hans-Josef Fell, Spokesman for Energy and Technology Policy for the German Parliament, even believes that no treaty is needed. “Look at the mobile phone industry. No treaty was needed to bring mobile phones all over the world. The same can be done for clean energy.”

Obama had declared that whoever captured the growing clean energy market would lead the world economy in the 21^st century. The rest will follow. We don’t know who this will be, however it is clear that the United States as a nation has some catching up to do. New and exciting technologies and policies that deal with climate change are sprouting all over the world. It is going to take cooperation on a global level, never before seen in history, to make this transition to a clean and sustainable economy, which is why conferences like the Verdexchange are so important. As stated by Zev Yaroslavsky, “People are frustrated. We owe it to our constituents to produce results. If we don’t, shame on us.”

Panelists also included: Mark Ridley Thomas, LA County Supervisor; Karen Douglas, Chair, California Energy Commission; Mutsuyoshi Nishimura, Former Special Envoy of the Government of Japan for Climate Change; Felicia Marcus, Western Director of the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC); Michael Peevey, President of the California Public Utilities Commission; S. David Freeman, Interim General Manager, LADWP; Vicky Sharpe, President and CEO of Sustainable Development Technology Canada. For a full list of speakers, visit: http://www.verdexchange.org/conference/speakers.