Solve Climate 2030: Solar Dominance and Civic Engagement

David Blockstein, Bard College

The 2030 date to achieve the Paris climate target has inspired new engagement in climate solutions. Nevertheless, there is widespread pessimism about slowing climate change in the near term. Countering this view, increasingly low-cost solar power plus low-cost storage is emerging as "the dominant backbone" of the future global energy economy. As costs continue to decline, unsubsidized solar plus storage is already the most economic power source in major markets. These positive market trends, combined with engaged citizen action, means that we can indeed "solve climate"—the energy side—over the next decade.

In 2019-20, The Center for Environmental Policy at Bard College is catalyzing a nationwide series of campus and community Power Dialogs. The project will engage more than 100,000 students in critical conversations about Power as clean energy, but also about Power as engaged citizen action. Dialogs will spotlight how transforming global energy and transportation in the 2020's will get us on the path to climate stabilization by 2030. What would a clean energy revolution deliver on green jobs, access to reliable power, improved environmental quality and health and more accessible transportation? Can a just and fair transition be achieved? How can students and other help drive this change? The project has two components:

One-Night Teach-Ins & Speakers Network Presentations, Fall-Winter 2019-2020. Solve Climate is recruiting a national network of hundreds of distinguished clean energy experts and academics from all 50 states. Beginning next fall, these speakers will be available to help spark dialog across the country for lectures and brown bag events at colleges, universities, high schools, and in faith-based and community groups. To reach beyond the usual audiences and maximize attendance. organizations are encouraged to host provocative, interdisciplinary "One-Night Teach-ins" about climate challenges and solutions—see the sample below.

National Power Dialog, Tuesday, April 7, 2020. On this date, Solve Climate will host a nationally coordinated on-line event with local events at hundreds of participating schools in every state. The 4.7.20 Power Dialog will feature hour-long, simultaneous, university-hosted webinars on state-specific solutions, followed by community dialogs that will focus on how students and others can take action.

In conjunction with the work of the speakers bureau and the Power Dialogs, Solve Climate staff and volunteers will work to support this national climate education project, and to drive media coverage of the Solar Dominance + Citizen Action. Time is short. Solve Climate By 2030 is a high-leverage approach to inject realistic optimism about the future. Solve Climate will foster the grassroots student and citizen action in the United States that the world needs now.

Contact David Blockstein, Ph.D., SolveClimate2030@gmail.com C 301-906-4958
www.solveclimateby2030.org

Downloadable version of this essay