Monday, December 3, 2007

Climate Leaders Conference: Day 1

Warm weather (50 degrees) greeted everyone in Boulder as the Climate Leaders program kicked off today. This was a short day, with an 90 minute intro to the CL program and a reception. Judging by the comments from the organizers, demand for this conference surprised them. Organizers stopped selling tickets weeks ago, hotels in Boulder are sold out, and even the 90 minute intro session today had double the number of attendees (90 instead of 45). Numerous large companies are attending, including Dell, Raytheon, Staples, Time Warner, Cummings, Corning, among others. A delegation of 4 are from India arrived to study this CL program for a potential program in India. Mood was generally upbeat. Reception conversation flowed from Bali (a few attendees had colleagues who attended Bali while they attended this conference, some talk about Australia new prime minister's commitment to ratify Kyoto: putting additional pressure on China and the US), to US presidential election (general agreement seems to be that Republican president will continue voluntary EPA programs while Democratic president will implement regulation), to difficulties of keeping up with all flavors of standards and reporting (state, federal, NGO, etc.).

Boulder is a wonderful town. Bike paths on many roads; mountains sprinkled with white snow on top. I stopped for a yogurt and the shop had a sticker from the local utility stating that "all electricity for this store comes from renewable resources". Green seems to be everywhere.

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