Oil and Gas Companies Seem To Own the COP28. But They Don't Own Smart Surface Strategies.
Green Living Plan: As policymakers, scientists, advocates and now (WTH??) fossil fuel lobbyists drag their feet, here's one effective and rather inexpensive tool to greatly reduce climate impacts.
a Smart Surfaces Coalition partnership
Clearly, the big annual convening of policymakers, scientists with warnings, environmental advocates and, to our dismay, fossil fuel lobbyists seems on a path towards yet another performative display of climate response. The dragging of collective feet at the COP28 - or “Conference of the Parties” - climate action summit in Dubai (where the methane flares and smog are out of control) seems deliberate. As that’s happening, the warnings and predictions remain dire and are becoming increasingly grim with every headline. We couldn’t help but notice this recent one from The Guardian for example …
Naturally, Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, the head of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (the world’s 12th largest oil company), who is - annoyingly - the president of the COP28 - dismissed the “science” on this even as he is, as of this writing, backtracking on earlier comments …
Meanwhile, heavy lobbying from the oil and gas sector continues at the COP28, with nearly four times as many fossil fuel lobbyists registered for the event this year than last year’s. Recent data registers nearly 2,500 oil and gas lobbyists, a number far exceeding the volume of registered lobbyists from the most vulnerable climate-ravaged countries.
Cool It Down
Still, with more than 60 countries signing a “cooling pledge” at the COP28 as wrangling over fossil fuel emissions intensifies, there is some hope that policymakers and the general public will begin noticing one rather effective and highly inexpensive but high-yield climate crisis mitigation strategy: smart surfaces. There is room for a transformative action plan enabling cities to better manage sun and rain to cost-effectively cut CO2 emissions-equivalent by 10-15 percent and cool cities by 5 degrees, with an initial focus on the United States, India and Southern Europe. A coalition of 40 organizations is already working on it.
There are six strategies that can allow cities and urban regions, where we see the most heat accumulation, to better manage sun and rain to cut costs and increase livability. Fossil fuel interests have little control over deployment of these strategies …
These strategies make sense as cities get hotter and less livable - this is especially the case in lower-income, mostly Black and Latino areas. More affluent and mostly White sections of a city will enjoy living spaces as much as 12 degrees less than low-income neighborhoods. Dark urban surfaces absorb, rather than reflect most of the sun’s heat - heating the city and increasing air pollution. Aggravating that is a lack of vegetation and trees to absorb heat, reduce pollution, and provide shade. Dark surfaces also make cities 9 degrees warmer on average, but (again) this effect is aggravated in low-income neighborhoods with less vegetation and more dark surfaces. The overall negative affects are multiplied by accumulating public health burdens (from respiratory issues to chronic disease and virus) to public safety threats (from growing mental health challenges to rising violent crime).
Cities Will Get More Crowded. So, Make Them Less Hot.
Rapid growth in urban areas, if built as usual, will accelerate climate crisis and expose hundreds of millions worldwide (and, yes, in the U.S., too) to increasing urban temperature, worsening air quality and a pile-on of dangerous public health impacts.
Urban areas account for about 70 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, and by 2030 cities will be home to 60 percent of the global population. By 2030, global urban area is projected to increase by 1.2 million sq. km – nearly triple the urban area in 2000. Adoption of smart surfaces would ensure that trillions of dollars of urban expansion would reduce, rather that accelerate, global warming – and ensure these areas are cooler, healthier, more resilient and more livable.
With smart surfaces, we cut climate crisis by 10 percent. For a fraction of the cost. These strategies are a major new integrated urban strategy to cut costs, enhance health, and increase economic competitiveness in one wholesale approach. Just look at the benefits of Reflective Roofs …
And then look at the combined benefits when all six strategies are working in concert …
Just in the U.S. alone, smart surface strategy adoption would …
Save cities $700 billion over 30 years in energy, health, and other costs
Cut air pollution and smog-related illnesses, asthma and other respiratory illness
Provide the greatest benefits for: low-income populations, elderly, infants, and people with respiratory conditions (asthma, allergies) …and reduces pandemic risks
Redress structural inequalities that burden minority and low-income communities
Create more than 500,000 new jobs
Help reduce global CO2-equivalent emissions by 10 percent
Address climate change mitigation and adaptation very cost-effectively
Of course, we’ll always need gatherings like COP28 to attempt to get us all on the same page about climate crisis and how we respond. But outside of that, and the alarming takeover of fossil fuel lobbyists, there are other options we can put into play right now.