Washington, D.C. and Its Diplomatic Community Pledge to Take Climate and Environmental Action

Representatives from Foreign Missions in the Washington D.C. area sign a pledge committing to climate and environmental action in the area. (Daniel Gaush| State Department Photo)

By: Caroline D’Angelo and Rebecca Rogers, U.S. State Department’s Office of Management Policy, Rightsizing, and Innovation

“And today, the world has officially crossed the threshold for the Paris Agreement to take effect. Today, the world meets the moment. And if we follow through on the commitments that this agreement embodies, history may well judge it as a turning point for our planet.” — President Obama, October 5, 2016 [read the whole speech here]

On Wednesday, October 5, the global community hit the target needed for the Paris Agreement to go into force. That evening, just hours after President Obama’s remarks, ambassadors and other representatives from over 60 embassies gathered with the Director of the District of Columbia’s Department of Energy and Environment to sign a pledge committing to climate and environmental action in Washington, D.C.

Several Ambassadors and other representatives from Foreign Missions in Washington D.C. sign a pledge committing to climate and environmental action in the DC area. (Daniel Gaush| State Department Photos)

Originally created and signed in 2012, the pledge was updated this year to reflect the goals of the Paris Agreement and the city’s SustainableDC plan. The pledge signifies the embassies’ entry into the DC Greening Embassies Forum, a platform that unites the diplomatic community together with the city to support climate and environmental action. The World Bank and International Finance Corporation also signed the pledge.

The Forum has grown over the years. With the commitments of over 20 new embassies, the Forum now encompasses over 100 embassies and international organizations. The Forum recognizes that embassies -– as highly visible landmarks and hubs for connecting people, ideas, and innovations — have a role to play in combatting climate change.

After all, the Paris Agreement is global, but many of climate change’s impacts –- and solutions -– are local.

Member embassies benefit from regular workshops and seminars on a wide range of topics, including green building certification, energy efficiency, clean energy policy, new financing mechanisms for renewable energy, and sustainable transportation.

Senior Advisor to the Secretary Ambassador David Thorne (Daniel Gaush| State Department Photo)

“Sub-national engagements that engage the diplomatic corps, such as this Forum, are significant tools in reaching our global climate and clean energy goals,” said Ambassador David H. Thorne, Senior Advisor to Secretary Kerry, at the event.

City-based environmental engagement and diplomacy is growing. The Forum now has chapters in Rome, Italy and Bangkok, Thailand. In fact, another speaker and pledge signer, Tommy Wells, director of D.C.’s Department of Energy and Environment (DOEE), had just returned from Copenhagen, Denmark, where he signed an environmental partnership and exchange with the government of that city.

Wells noted that collecting –- and acting –- on innovative ideas has helped the District of Columbia reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 23 percent between 2006 and 2013, even while the city’s population and economy grew.

Embassies have also used knowledge gained from the Forum to reduce their carbon and environmental footprints.

The Embassy of France partnered with the city to install at 10,000 square foot green roof on one of its buildings, which helps reduce stormwater run-off and heat-island effects, and increases occupant comfort in the offices below. Also, D.C. is also now home to one of the world’s two highest-certified green embassies, the Embassy of Finland, which received Leadership in Energy and Environment Design (LEED) Platinum certification. Other Washington embassies with LEED certifications include the Embassies of Canada, the Netherlands, the European Union, and the United Arab Emirates.

Beyond physical infrastructure, embassies are also working to reduce their footprint through encouraging individual actions. The embassies of Germany and Australia regularly encourage biking to work. Several Ambassadors walked to the ceremony in celebration of the spirit of the pledge.

Director of the Office of Management Policy, Rightsizing, and Innovation Ambassador Adam Namm speaks at the DC Greening Embassies Forum event in Washington, D.C. (Daniel Gaush| State Department Photo)

The Department of State has also worked to reduce its environmental footprint in D.C. Ambassador Adam E. Namm, Director of State’s Office of Management Policy, Rightsizing and Innovation, noted that nearly half of the Department’s energy needs for its facilities in DC and Maryland come from offsite wind and solar farms through a power purchase agreement for which the Department incurred no upfront costs. Namm also mentioned that he arrived in a Department of State Chevrolet Volt hybrid electric car.

In the build-up to COP21 last year, the Department of State and Bloomberg Philanthropies launched “Our Cities, Our Climate” to advance innovation by urban areas in the fight against climate change. We look forward to hosting this program again this year to help implement climate action and encourage you to consider ways you and your organizations can do your part to take actions to protect the environment.

About the Authors: Caroline D’Angelo works on the Forum and U.S. Department of State’s greening efforts in the Office of Management Policy, Rightsizing, and Innovation (M/PRI). Rebecca Rogers is a virtual fellow from Austin College for M/PRI.

This entry originally appeared on DipNote, the U.S. Department of State Official Blog.

Irish leaders fear Brexit will bring economic disaster

 

Enda Kenny with Theresa May outside 10 Downing Street after the Brexit vote. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

Lisa O'Carroll and Stephen Collins in Dublin

Irish leaders have warned of an economic “disaster” on both sides of the border without decisive action to confront the effects of Britain’s impending departure from the EU.

Amid warnings of “incalculable consequences” for the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland as the Brexit process unfolds, Ireland’s prime minister Enda Kenny will convene an unprecedented cross-border summit of political leaders to consider what steps to take.

The prospect of Brexit has already raised intractable questions about the border that runs across the island, and has vexed farmers who send half their beef to British dinner tables. The slump of sterling is squeezing Irish exporters and the future of Northern Ireland, which relies heavily on EU subsidies, is uncertain. Some forecasters fear that Ireland could be harder hit than Britain by the tumult.

Martin McGuinness calls for special EU status for Northern Ireland

At this delicate moment, the Guardian and the Irish Times are collaborating on a week-long series exploring the predicament facing Irelandand the UK.

Kenny told the Irish Times that he would summon all political players to an unprecedented All Island Civic Dialogue on 2 November. “It is really important that we have all of the voices reflective of Ireland over a series of meetings,” he said. “I am going to invite to that all of the political parties who wish to attend and I don’t mean that I expect a grandstanding performance from each of them.

“It is more of a listening exercise from political parties because we need to hear the voice of retail, the voice of trade, of commerce of the construction sector, education and all of these areas, north and south.”

FacebookTwitterPinterest An Orange Order parade in Northern Ireland. Enda Kenny said all voices would be heard at the summit. Photograph: Charles McQuillan/Getty Images

Such is the seriousness of the situation that the taoiseach and the Irish foreign minister, Charlie Flanagan, have assembled a team of almost 100 people to work on Brexit, with embassies across Europe being beefed up to cope with the fallout.

“Brexit has been referred to as the biggest foreign policy issue facing the UK since EEC accession in 1973. In many ways, the same is true of Ireland,” Flanagan writes in a Guardian opinion piece.

Martin McGuinness, Northern Ireland’s deputy first minister and Sinn Féin leader said that Brexit threatened devastating consequences for the island.

“As things sit at the moment we are going to suffer big time,” McGuinness told the Guardian in an interview. “Theresa May says ‘Brexit means Brexit’, but so far as we are concerned Brexit means disaster for the people of Ireland.”

Britain’s departure from the EU will deprive Ireland of a crucial ally in Brussels. The two countries are often mutually reinforcing in the EU bureaucracy, siding with one another on matters of trade, regulation, financial services and tax.

Former taoiseach John Bruton says Ireland now has to “up its game substantially” in Brussels, lamenting what he says is the unravelling of centuries of common trade.

“We have been part of a common economic area for a very, very long time, only broken in the 18th century when Britain adopted anti-Irish trade practices and there was an episode in the 1930s,” he said. “The decision to leave is reversing 1,000 years of history between Britain and Ireland.”

For Ireland the Brexit question is not theoretical – Irish political and business leaders are already dealing with the strain brought on by the collapse in sterling following the 23 June referendum.

Britain is Ireland’s largest export partner, while Ireland is Britain’s fifth biggest trading partner, with €1.5bn (£1.35bn) in transactions each week. The London-Dublin route is Europe’s busiest airlink.

Bruton is among those warning of potential trade wars post-Brexit if Britain tries to increase market share through subsidies.

“If Britain avails of its exit from the single market to reintroduce subsidies to British food production, as was the case before the common market, this would cause serious damage to the Irish food industry and would probably necessitate retaliation by Europe,” he said. “Anti-dumping measures are part of the armoury of the EU and they have been used before and could be again.”

At the moment all Irish exporters, both north and south of the border, are grappling with short-term and long-term challenges. “There isn’t anybody in Ireland that has not been touched in some way by this. If you’re not an exporter, then you’re likely to be a supplier to an exporter. The effect of the currency slump is very serious,” said John McGrane, director general of the British Irish Chamber of Commerce.

Large food exporters to Britain have been able to insure themselves against sterling’s decline because they hedge their currencies.

FacebookTwitterPinterest Workers harvest mushrooms at Reilly mushroom farm in Athlone. Another factory, in Tipperary, recently closed down. Photograph: Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters

McGrane predicted job losses after Christmas on both sides of the Irish Sea, saying it was not possible to “pent up price increases without being able to pass them on”.

A mushroom factory in the small rural town of Tipperary that closed in August was an early warning sign, a canary in the coalmine. An estimated 90% of mushrooms are exported to the UK, bringing in about €120m each year.

The Tipperary factory relied heavily on British sales and closed with the loss of 75 jobs as a direct result of Brexit, with the owner blaming the drop in sterling against theeuro.

Even after Brexit, hard borders won’t be returning to Ireland

Charlie Flanagan

Read more

“I did not expect when the British people went to the polls that it would have had any consequence for a small town like ours,” independent councillor Denis Leahy told the Guardian.

Last week the Irish government responded to desperate calls for help by announcing a €150m loan fund for farmers being crushed by the weakening of sterling.

“Food business works on extremely thin margins of around 2%. If you have to add 17% to your costs because of currency exchange, then you have a 15% straight loss. Irish industry is just looking on at this with great alarm,” said McGrane.