The governor's Climate Change Advisor, Alice Madden, will be going to Copenhagen for the United Nations meeting on climate change and participating in a panel to share Colorado's story of investing in renewable energy resources and incentivizing energy-efficient purchases for its residents.
Further, she will be meeting with more than 100 companies to pitch them on the merits of doing business in Colorado. The governor's Energy Office has also produced a video to be shown at a trade fair going on in conjunction with the conference.
"Our reputation is preceding us, it's pretty exciting," she said. "It really doesn't matter what anyone's position on climate change is, we're doing things (in Colorado) to save people money, to make our air cleaner and to make our energy more secure."
Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper was asked by the White House to participate in a transportation panel, specifically to talk about RTD and the FasTracks expansion approved by Metro area voters a few years ago. He says going to Copenhagen is an opportunity to learn about what else Denver can do besides simply talking about what we've already done.
"A lot of the world opinion is against the United States, they don't think we're doing enough," he said. "Part of what's going on in the U.S. is local communities are taking matters into their own hands. We are going to insulate our buildings better. We are going to use more energy efficient lighting.
"Everybody believes we want cleaner air. We want to save money and if we don't waste a lot of taxpayer money on it, there's consensus."
A new report out Thursday from the group Environment America backs up Hickenlooper's claims. It shows clean energy policies implemented by individual states across the country will reduce more global warming pollution by 2010 than all but eight countries worldwide. It's estimated Colorado ranks 12th of all the states in reducing its carbon footprint by 2020.
Both Madden and Hickenlooper's panels will be streamed live and can be seen here: http://en.cop15.dk/. The conference starts Monday and runs for a week and a half.
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