Thursday, January 10, 2008

"My Name is Paul, I'm an Carbon Addict" - notes from Open Eco Energy Summit

This Open Eco Energy Summit is my first unconference (no set agenda for plenary or breakout sessions; probably works for some types of conferences, but certainly not all).

Funny moment today when a gentleman took microphone and said “My Name is Jay and I’ve been a carbon addict for 40 years” (perhaps this is an age old eco joke, but it was funny).

General agreement that industry/movement is moving out of 'awareness' phase into action phase.

I was very impressed with L. Hunter Lovins, President of National Capitalism Solutions. She was insightful and prescriptive. Highlights of her comments:

o Path much move from energy efficiency toward renewables

o “we have enough technology” but changing behavior is the challenge (this comment caused considerable debate. Her point is to eliminate perverse financial and regulatory incentives)

o “I don’t believe in nuclear, nuclear had $500b in subsidies in last 20 years and now they are

o 3 parts to solution: government, business, civil (personal)

o “10K people fly to Bali to discuss global warming is moronic” (she refused to attend)

o We already have a green billionaire (china person who owns solar company)

o Peak oil will increasingly become more important.


Overall, admirable PR effort by Sun (who paid for facility, 3 meals, internet broadcast, video recording). It's not totally clear what the ultimate objective with this program is, but food and networking was good.



No comments: