Area’s environmental credentials touted in Copenhagen
Mayor Pegeen Hanrahan is touting Gainesville’s environmental credentials as part of the Green Jobs for Florida delegation at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark.
People from around the world are hearing about Gainesville’s solar feed-in tariff, energy efficiency programs and planned biomass power plant.
“When I describe the actions we’ve taken, people I see internationally are really impressed that an American city is as far ahead as we are,” she said by conference call Wednesday.
As further confirmation of Gainesville’s green standing, Hanrahan was invited by the White House to sit on a panel of mayors todayThursday -Anthony Clark 12/16/09 4:09 PM to highlight the work of their cities, she said. Others include mayors of Seattle; Des Moines, Iowa; Albuquerque, N.M.; Sonoma County, Calif.; and North Little Rock, Ark.
Hanrahan said there was some doubt about whether that event will happen because of some of the chaos of the overcrowded conference.
She was calling from a train station that was under a bomb threat, “so if the phone goes dead, I might be dead,” she said wryly.
The delegation includes 25 people in business, government and research who are meeting with their counterparts from around the world to drum up business for the state and create jobs by providing the energy-efficient technology that will be needed to meet the climate goals of the conference.
Enterprise Florida expects companies from around the world to visit Florida in the spring and hopes the contacts made at the conference end with deals for Florida companies, said Christelle Maffre, the organization’s European representative.
She said she expects an announcement later on a deal with a French energy provider.
Florida is well situated to take advantage of the burgeoning green technology field thanks to policy decisions by Gov. Charlie Crist and the state Legislature, said Howell Ferguson, chairman and CEO of Lykes Bros. Inc. in Tampa, but policy-makers will have to continue to support green technology to keep up, he said.
“This type of meeting indicates everybody is now moving fast,” he said.
The delegation might come up with legislative proposals, said Kathy Baughman McLeod, chairwoman of the delegation and director of public policy at Bryant Miller Olive, a Tallahassee law firm.
“We’re talking to lots of governments that have incentives and legislation to improve and promote renewable energy,” she said.
Hanrahan said a lot of people think of climate change in terms of the challenges and costs, but she sees a lot of benefits to conservation efforts improving quality of life, reducing costs and providing economic opportunities.
“Two years ago, we had one solar company in Gainesville doing installations and today we have five,” she said.
She pointed to the work of the Gainesville Area Chamber of Commerce to promote the city’s “innovation economy” and the “cutting edge research” in biofuels and energy systems at the University of Florida.
The Green Jobs delegation also includes UF professor Tim Anderson, director of the Florida Energy Systems Consortium of Florida universities that coordinates research and education in energy.
No tax money was used to pay for the delegates’ travel, McLeod said. Hanrahan’s trip is being funded by Local Governments for Sustainability, of which she is a board member.
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