Now that the ink is dry on the historic international climate agreement signed last weekend in Paris, the hard part begins. How do we cap global greenhouse gas emissions at levels that keep our planet’s heating well below a couple of degrees Celsius? Hawaii could have the answer.
With our abundant natural resources, a long history of innovation and a culture of pulling together for common purpose, Hawaii is uniquely positioned to lead the globe in solving our climate crisis. Hawaii is already on the map for its bold renewable energy policy and clean energy deployment. Now it’s time for us to illuminate the pathway to a 100 percent renewable energy future.
Despite too many years of back and forth on global emissions limits, nature doesn’t negotiate. We had a taste of a changing climate this past summer as the Pacific became a cauldron with record high temperatures, unprecedented downpour events, dying reefs, slackening trades and an unheard-of 15 tropical cyclones close to home. Folks with long history in these islands know it — something feels different.
But it’s not just the heat, it’s the humanity. From the mass migration of climate refugees to extreme weather disasters to prolonged drought exacerbating malnutrition, tough problems get tougher the warmer the atmosphere gets. Our target must be zero fossil fuel emissions, 100 percent renewable — and on this Hawaii can lead.
Hawaii has made impressive progress in clean energy over the past decade. We’ve reduced the amount of fossil fuel we burn despite economic and population growth. In 10 years we’ve tripled the amount of renewable energy we use. We have 40 times the number of electric vehicles on the road.
Along the way we’ve found that our best predictions underestimated what was possible. In 2007, the utility forecast a total of 161 rooftop solar installations on Oahu by 2015; today we have over 51,000. Energy storage — the holy grail for renewable energy — is increasingly available. Earlier this year, the company SolarCity signed an agreement with the Kauai utility cooperative to provide a large amount of solar power cheaper than oil power — at night. What was once the province of science fiction is now being put into practice.
Blue Planet Foundation has been fueling this change in Hawaii. That’s why we worked hard to help make Hawaii the first state in the nation with a 100 percent renewable energy law. That policy is changing the conversation globally, as other states and nations seek to adopt their own commitments to zero fossil fuel.
It’s exciting, but our work is far from over.
Now is the time for Hawaii to demonstrate the clean energy solutions the globe so desperately needs. That means ensuring that anyone who wants to power their home or business with clean energy has the fair opportunity to do so.
It means transforming our utility — regardless of ownership — to an innovative utility model of the future that is focused on customer choice and energy services. (It will need to act more like Netflix and less like Blockbuster.) We will need to rapidly implement the long-delayed community solar program to enable all electricity customers — including renters and families in high-rises — to participate in renewable energy. And it means putting in place aggressive policies to reduce our annual consumption of fossil fuel-based gasoline and diesel for transportation from half a billion gallons annually to zero.
Climate change science began in Hawaii, in 1957, with a small lab atop Mauna Loa dutifully recording the uptick in carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. The story of how the globe responds to this greatest threat of our generation is currently being written. Now Hawaii has a chance to help write the ending.
