“The Carbon Charter”, a book recently published is the subject of this review.  It was written by Godo Stoyke, the President of Carbon Busters Inc, a consultancy that has reduced carbon dioxide emissions of buildings in North America and Europe by over 150 million pounds.

               The subtitle should attract much-needed attention, so I’ve used it for the title of this hub. 

               It’s a publication that should be read by city councilors, mayors, governors, legislators and top government officials in every city in the world, as it presents detailed information of steps that are being  taken to reduce the threat of global warming.

         Under the umbrella of the United Nations, a Millennium Ecosystem Assessment that had been compiled by 1360 experts from 95 countries revealed in 2005 that:

              “Nearly two thirds of the services provided by nature to humankind are found to be in decline worldwide.  In effect, the benefits reaped from our engineering of the planet have been achieved by running down natural capital assets.  In many cases, it is literally a matter of living on borrowed time.”

               Now that I've read this book, I feel that no longer will it be valid when discussing this problem to wave the arms about and mumble,  “Something should be done” for this book describes projects that ARE underway.  It gives quick access to “some of the world’s best sustainability ordinances, bylaws, and acts.”

               Many projects are described - with websites so that details can be reviewed - but I’ll list just a few: 

        The Maldeves are the first country to announce their commitment to be carbon neutral within 10 years, and the UK is the world’s first country to adopt a zero-carbon policy for new homes effective 2016.  An identical policy will become effective in Wales in 2011.

           Sweden is cmmitted to elimination of dependence on oil and other fossil fuels by 202.   It had already cut its energy intensity by nearly 20% since 1994 through the use of environmental taxes and by meeting 25% of energy needs through biofuel.”

         The village of Ashton Hayes in Cheshire, England, is aiming to be the first carbon-neutral community in England.  In just two years, the 1,000 residents have saved 20% on their energy costs.”

        Woodstock, New York has completed a number of initiatives aimed at making it the first zero-carbon municipality in the U.S.  Among them were installation of 112 photovoltaic modules in the town hall, subsidies for wind power installations, a geothermal heating-cooling system at the town garage, and a tree-planting program to increase summer shading.  The text includes several more initiatives that are in the planning stage.

       To encourage solar power, the City of Bend, Oregon requires new structures to be constructed as far south as feasible and in California in its Solar Rights Act it states that local agencies are not to adopt ordinances that create unreasonable barriers for such installations.

          An entire chapter is devoted to the creation of “walkable and rideable cities” for the post-carbon era.  (See Walkable.org)  Among the items discussed are the need for intact town centers, mixed-income/mixed-use neighborhoods, controlled speed for key streets, and access to basic services within 1/8 to ½ mile radius.  The City of Palo Alto limits grocery stores to 20,000 sq. ft. to allow for more distributed grocery stores that remain competitive and can be reached on foot.  Walkable cities in the text are Seattle, Portland (OR), and Austin, Texas, as they have developed neighborhood master plans.

         More than 11 years ago, the Belgian city of Hasselt created a public transport plan whereby a free shuttle runs every five minutes around the city’s central “Green Boulevard”.  Two of the boulevard lanes were closed for cars and made available for bicycles only.  Ridership in the central area increased by 1,182 and the city is now prosperous.

        Stoyke writes that plug-in hybrid vehicles can be used for 90 to 100% of daily driving and cites an estimate that the two million electric cars in Denmark could supply five times as much electricity as the whole nation's grid (Click betterplace.com for more details.)

        A program has been developed in Berkeley, California whereby owners of residential and commercial property have access to funding for solar, electric and thermal systems with the cost including interest being paid through an annual tax on the owner's property over a period of 20 years.  The advantage is that the owners have no up-front costs and are expected to save as much in energy costs as they will be paying in taxes.

         The chapter on integrated municipal design is well worth reading, as it describes the district heating and cooling design used in Hammarby Sjostad, an area of Stockholm.  Thirty four percent of the heat needed in a diistrict housing 25,000 people is provided from treated wastewater, 47% from combustible household waste, and 16% from biofuel.  The same heating system also provides cooling.  (CarbonCharter.org/25)

         China’s introduction of the US$22,000 BYD F3DM plug-in hybrid “shows that, in the future, car manufacturers will have to compete on price as well as technology in the sustainability field”.

        Near the end of the book, Stoyke lists the key steps in achieving a zero carbon society:

1.  Replace 75-90% of existing energy consumption with efficiency and conservation using retrofits of existing structures and better design of new products.

2.  Replace internal combustion engine vehicles with plug-in gas-electric and full-electric vehicles.

3.  Increase efficiency of new light duty vehicles by a factor of two to ten, depending on vehicle type.

4.  Move our fossil fuel electric grid to a 100% renewable one through a combination of energy efficiency and conservation, wind and solar, smart grids that minimize peak demand through load shifting, long-distance, high voltage DC transmission networks, integration with electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles, utility-sized electrical storage solutions, and biofuel base load supply to meet solar and wind down-times.

5.  Convert farming to organic agriculture that can produce high yield and higher quality food while increasing carbon capture of soils.

6.  Protect forests and ecosystems through bio-bounties/feebates.

7.  Meet remaining building, aviation, electrical and transportation fuel needs through sustainably produced biofuels.

8.  Move toward a dematerialization of society through emphasis on happiness and quality of life over material consumption.

9.  Integrate community design to maximize eco-industrial flows of energy and materials where waste products become the next cycle’s feedstock, where walking, biking and public transit take precedence over cars.

10.  Migrate less sustainable industries to more sustainable ones by providing job training and incentives for green switching.

11.  Keep researching under-utilized renewable energy sources including more efficient products and processes, solar, wind and tides, sustainable biofuel production including algal biodiesel, mycofuels, cellulosic ethanol and biofuel from waste, a hydrogren economy and the climate cooling effect of atmospheric aerosols.