Hong Kong event is not a full C40 Large Cities Climate Leadership Group summit, but a 'topical' workshop, with specific focus on buildings and electric vehicles (two separate speaker tracks). Several hundred attendees, including thirty of the C40 cities in attendance. Very large local contingent from Hong Kong government and interested stakeholders.

1. C40 workshop piggybacked on a two-day Climate Dialogue event thrown by local Hong Kong group (Civic Exchange) focused on improving local knowledge of climate change, and what can/should be done to green Hong Kong.
2. C40 workshop was very climate mitigation focused; adaptation wasn't mentioned as often as it could have been (although the topic was raised at the Climate Dialogue workshops preceding the C40).
3. PlaNYC was a topic of considerable discussion in Hong Kong; it's clear that the plan and the city's efforts are well-regarded by other cities. NYC Building Commissioner LaMandri's keynote speech on the first day was repeatedly referenced on Day 2.
4. JUCCCE's new Chinese language translation of the original 2007 PlaNYC report was a big hit with the locals; Mayor Bloomberg presented copies of the report to the Chief Executive of Hong Kong and the Mayor of Shenzhen (an hour away in Mainland China, where mayor took a side trip to view a solar PV manufacturing facility). JUCCCE is very hopeful that the release of the report will have a positive effect in advancing our message that cities in China need to move beyond their silo-specific planning activities to craft a comprehensive, long-term growth and sustainability plan. We've long found that Chinese local government officials are fascinated by what NYC is doing, because the efforts are being undertaken by a city (almost) as large as theirs. We were thrilled to see so many locals at the conference reading the report; a total of 200 copies were given away overall. Download JUCCCE's Chinese translation of the PlaNYC report.
5. Mayor Bloomberg's speech as in-coming chair of C40 hints at a new, more aggressive focus for the organization, a reflection of the tremendous growth and maturation of the group over the past two years. Much applause was directed at outgoing C40 chair (Toronto Mayor David Miller) for his leadership in helping to build the capacity and profile of the organization.
6. Several Chinese mayors and vice mayors participated in a panel discussion at the C40, the first time I've seen them so vocal at a global event. They're clearly gravitating to the notion of the importance of low carbon city development in China; the challenge is in determining what that means in a Chinese context, where growth has been the paramount goal for the last 20 years. (See final paragraph below for related news.)
7. I only attended the building sessions, but thought the presentations were quite strong. Wide diversity of cities were represented, with sessions covering new build, retrofits, financing, etc. Interesting format where they had preselected some experts in the audience (academics, architects, NGO representatives) to reflect on what the presenters had to say. Quality of the commentary was outstanding, supplementing and sometimes challenging ideas put forward by the speakers.

Of the four, the most important is the Benchmarking law. By combining annual benchmarking of building energy use with mandatory public disclosure, stakeholders will be made aware of how their properties perform in comparison to similar portfolios and the law will "shine the light" of transparency where performance might be less than expected. Here's how it will work.

New York City is poised to exert global leadership on energy efficiency in existing buildings. Much has been made of the "Greener Greater Buildings" laws that spell out an array of energy requirements pursuant to the goals of PlaNYC 2030. Over the next decade we will see what results are achieved in implementing legal requirements for energy code compliance, benchmarking, audits, retro-commissioning, and lighting improvements. Key players, led by NYC government itself, have committed to "early implementation" by 2017. The current administration is budgeting 10% of it municipal energy expense for annual funding of energy efficiency improvement projects in municipal buildings. This amounts to $100 million per year.

The biggest obstacle to building such a sustainable economy is perverse incentives. Incentives, generations of economists have demonstrated, are what drive economic behavior. Perverse incentives are those that reward economic behaviors that are environmentally destructive, destroying more wealth than they create.

When it comes to money gained through energy efficiency, as Sallan's regular readers know, this isn't true.

Investing in energy efficiency projects can create new money. A 2008 study by the respected McKinsey Global Institute concluded that at least one half of projected worldwide energy demand growth over the next twelve years could be met through increased energy efficiency in all sectors of the economy — and this can be accomplished by employing existing technologies that generate significant rates of return on investments. By more than paying for themselves, these energy efficiency technologies will generate capital that can be spent elsewhere.

— "You got peanut butter in my chocolate!"
— "You got chocolate in my peanut butter!"

But, as the slogan goes, they discover that "two great tastes that taste great together", and candy lovers everywhere rejoice in the finding.

Not unlike the chocolate-peanut butter collision, two transformative movements of our time are poised to slam together into a concoction no less delightful than the Peanut Butter Cup (particularly to green enthusiasts of geekly tendencies): the Open Data movement and high-performance green building.

This is good news for proponents of environmentally sound development. If sound rules are adopted, applicants and approving agencies would be required to consider systematically — and perhaps quantitatively — the greenhouse gas (GHG) implications of projects they are considering, of feasible alternatives, and of mitigation measures. Consideration would also be required of the impacts of climate change on projects, such as rising sea and groundwater levels.

What is Berkeley FIRST?
Berkeley FIRST (Financing Initiative for Renewable and Solar Technology) is an innovative renewable energy financing program designed to overcome the barriers to property owners' adoption of renewable energy technologies. Berkeley FIRST was inspired by the fact many energy conscious property owners do not invest in energy efficiency because of the high upfront costs and long-term financial commitments. University of California/Berkeley Professor Dan Kammen uses a telling metaphor to explain this dilemma — he asks: "How many of us would have cell phones if we had to buy 20 years of minutes up front?"

Do New York City's green entrepreneurs have "shovel-ready" business plans? The Sallan Foundation has asked me to look at the green movement through the prism of a new (less than a year old) eco-incubator in Brooklyn called Green Spaces. I come to the assignment having worked on the 1999 study of the New York City software industry undertaken by the then City Comptroller, Alan Hevesi. From that study, I became enamored of Henry Etzkowitz's concept of the "Triple Helix" — bringing together government, business and university resources to create new companies.

China's growing urban energy use has global price impacts. The country's heavy reliance on coal to fuel urban power demand also has major environmental consequences both directly in these cities and in rural communities where the coal is mined or turned into electricity. Recently, emissions from China's coal power plants have been blamed for degraded air quality in American and Canadian cities, as the plume of emissions blows across the Pacific Ocean.

As acknowledged in the Plan, buildings account for 79% of the green house gas emissions in New York City, so modifying the Building and Energy codes are key tools in abating their contribution to global warming. The Plan also recognized that the Zoning Resolution constitutes another one of the key tools available to address these challenges.