How does it work?  Essentially, these programs would be funded by developed nations to help pay for community forestry projects in developing countries, if the communities can demonstrate — with verifiable data — that their efforts are saving forests that would have been destroyed or if they are planting trees that would permanently sequester carbon.

Will this work? Many other systems have tried and failed to reduce deforestation. In Indonesia, where an area of forest about the size of Nevada has been destroyed since 1990, activists have participated in demonstrations, legal actions, blockades and destruction of property to protest timber production. Many international NGOs have joined them in their campaigns against the forestry practices in Indonesia, releasing report after report on the “State of the Forest.” The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have attempted to regulate forestry as conditions of their loans. None of it worked, and Indonesia continues to see massive amounts of illegal logging and deforestation.

But, there’s a new kid in town: Norway. This small, rich, Scandinavian country of 4.8 million people has entered into a partnership with Indonesia to reduce deforestation and prepare the vast island nation in Southeast Asia to provide verified emissions reductions on a world carbon market. In exchange, Norway will provide financial support of $1 billion over the next seven to eight years. If saved, the remaining 88.4 million hectares of forest and the emissions credits they would be worth could be “an almost unfathomably large business opportunity,” according to one leading international banker, Lord Stanley Fink. Norway’s agreement with Indonesia to develop REDD+ projects is a step in the right direction. They are focused on building the foundation of a responsible system before rushing into certification projects.

Early examples of REDD projects in other countries reveal the risks of a rush to REDD. In a report released this week at the UN climate talks in Durban, South Africa, indigenous leaders from Peru tell a story about REDD+ project developers hastening to get community leaders to sign contracts in English and with serious flaws:

We live here in the Peruvian Amazon where there is a new boom, a new fever just like for rubber and oil but this time for carbon and REDD. The companies, NGOs and brokers are breeding, desperate for that magic thing, the signature of the village chief on the piece of paper about carbon credits, something that the community doesn’t understand well but in doing so the middle-man hopes to earn huge profits on the back of our forests and our ways of life but providing few benefits for communities. We denounce this ‘carbon piracy’ that is one side of the reality of REDD in the Peruvian Amazon.

The problem here is that consensus is hard. Project developers rushed into the area to establish projects without doing the slow and consensus-based community conservation work that has been proven effective, as in Indonesia’s community forestry programs. Like Lord Stanley Fink, these developers view REDD+ as a business opportunity and were not inclined — and probably did not have the expertise — to do the slow work of educating villagers, hosting community meetings and building consensus. The Norway-Indonesia partnership, however, seems to be making a slow, and delayed, way to a successful and mutually beneficial program.

Start with the market size… 3 billion people. That’s right, almost half the world’s population, primarily in Africa and Southern Asia, depend on rudimentary cookstoves and fires to prepare their daily meals. By the way, it’s not just their health that’s impacted. Local forests are pillaged for firewood that quickly burns in their fires, sending up black carbon into the atmosphere and causing ground-level and global warming pollution.

If you don’t see this map, click here

Better, clean-burning cookstoves have been around since the 1980s when aid groups such as UNICEF and CARE-Kenya first started distributing them. Since the health and environmental problems are clear, why haven’t they been widely adopted? It hasn’t been for lack of trying. In India, the government subsidised 50% of the cost of eight million stoves and distributed throughout the country, but half the stoves laying unused. The problem is that there wasn’t enough marketing built in to the plan… and not enough was done to adapt the models to fit cooking styles.

So, instead of giving stoves away, a new model for bringing clean cookstoves to the masses is gaining steam: create a business opportunity. Aid organizations are now looking for opportunities to subsidize small businesses to market and service cookstoves in their own communities, with the hopes that it will enhance demand for products appropriate for the market that they’re in.

One way they’re already starting to employ workers is to send them on outreach and demonstration trips to rural communities. PBS Newshour showed the work of one organization doing just that — through theater.

http://www-tc.pbs.org/s3/pbs.videoportal-prod.cdn/media/swf/PBSPlayer.swf

The UN Foundation Report, “Igniting Change” makes it clear that it’s not just demand that needs to be encouraged to make the use of clean cookstoves widespread. Supply of high-quality and effective cookstoves need to be increased in addition to an “enabling environment” that tracks the impact of the project, like carbon reductions and adoption.

Some of us in the U.S. may be hoping for kitchen makeover, but even more are hoping for a toxic-free kitchen. And, with the holidays in front of us, we can all get behind the new slogan for the cookstove campaign, “Cooking shouldn’t kill.”

But an innovator in Thailand is figuring out how to build homes that rise above waters when they rise. Chutayaves Sinthuphan’s Amphibious House can be placed on land and rises on stilts when there is a flood. But there is a much cheaper option–raft houses–which sit on water.

What do you think of this idea? Let us know at Planet Forward.

College campuses are facing the same problems everyone else is — houses built on sand. Coastal erosion, extreme weather and climate uncertainty are impacting university campuses the same way they are our homes. How are they dealing with these issues?

But even more, how are they educating people to deal with these issues elsewhere? As job-trainers and thought leaders, are they preparing students to enter the workforce for clean energy jobs or sustainable community planning? Are engineering departments teaching students how to build in ways that have less impact on the earth? Are business schools teaching their MBA candidates how to navigate the world of clean energy credits and carbon offsets?

Universities need to be thinking forward and figuring out how to prepare both their own campuses for the future and their graduates for the future. Luckily there are a few programs that are already doing that. We talked to Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon Director, Richard King about how students can leverage their college experience to build for the future, or “rebuild the 20th Century.”

Planet Forward’s Frank Sesno catches up with Secretary of Energy Dr. Steven Chu on site at the 2011 Solar Decathlon. Chu talks about some of the coolest innovations in the houses, and even wonks out a bit on values and building materials.

The official DOE final standings for the solar decathlon put the University of Maryland on top (congrats, Terps!) followed by Purdue, New Zealand and Middlebury. But we have our own contest and you are the judge. Vote for which team was your favorite at Planet Forward’s Solar Decathlon page and maybe you can see them featured in a PBS Nightly Business Report!

How can we seamlessly incorporate environmental sustainability into houses that remind us of home? All of the Solar Decathlon teams are judged on “Market Appeal,” or how well their houses would appeal to their target market — does it have “curb appeal.” So, the teams go to various lengths to incorporate energy savings into the typical American lifestyle, a feat not easily done. We use vast amounts of energy to power our lives.

Planet Forward has been following the Solar Decathlon teams. These are the five that stand out to us that have interwoven cultural values into their super-efficient homes.

Captions by Anthony Cefali

Giving back to the community with Empowerhouse

The Empowerhouse doesn’t have anyone living in it — yet. In partnership with Habitat for Humanity, the Empowerhouse Collective designed and built a solar home to provide for a D.C.-area family.The saying goes “Be the change you want to see in the world.” Swap “be” with “build” and you get Empowerhouse, reaching beyond environmental sustainability into the deeply intricate and heavily nuanced community sustainability. Ultimately, for solar power to be the energy game-changer we expect it to be it must spread far and wide, and Empowerhouse takes a bold first step.

Team Maryland’s natural watershed inspired by the Chesapeake Bay

This is less about who lives here than where and how they live. Team Maryland’s eco-mimicry builds upon an already efficient natural system. Watersheds present an environmental conundrum because everyone wants clean bodies of water, but we often build right up to our waterfronts, negating watersheds (beachfront property is neither economically nor environmentally cheap). Healthy watersheds — ones that provide verdant habitats and lap up excess nutrients — lead to healthy waters. In Team Maryland’s case, a healthy home watershed provides for healthier, more sustainable living.

The best of New Zealand’s culture all under one roof

Looking to the simpler things in life, Team New Zealand’s First Light House draws inspiration from the traditional Kiwi vacation home. The bach (pronounced “batch”) lends space for outdoor recreation and socialization, reflecting a deep and admirable Kiwi tradition of hospitality, friendliness and shared environment. First Light’s living spaces amongst solar decathletes, facilitating discussions, connections and good times. The first place on Earth where the sun hits in the morning, First Light connects residents with the changing land around it.

Appalachian State pioneers a solar future

The modern house lacks the pioneering spirit of yore — yore in this case meaning “the days of settling North Carolina.” Appalachian State’s Solar Homestead takes the best of the pioneering spirit — all the stories of hardship, failure and ultimately triumph — and packages it up into 1000 neat square feet. The Homestead’s net-zero energy balance remembers a time of rugged independence, resilience and ingenuity. The first settlers of North Carolina relied on the land, and built homes to suit. It’s no coincidence the Solar Homestead resembles a traditional pioneer home, made for a wilder sort of life.

TRTL comes out of its shell

A nation’s proud history can strengthen the foundations of any home, particularly Team Canada’s TRTL. Definitely the most culturally astute of the 2011 Solar Decathletes, TRTL takes its holistic inspiration from Canada’s Native peoples of Treaty 7. Technology and tradition, TRTL’s tee pee design amplifies direct connections to the environment, paradoxically and productively looking to the future and the past. Modern appliances converse fluidly with wood paneling and native decor, all powered by the sun. Harmony achieved.

Embracing our “Sputnik moment” is what twenty college teams from around the world are doing as they compete in this year’s Solar Decathlon.  They are bringing to Washington D.C. some of the most innovative designs and technology to make super-efficient solar homes of the future.  But they’re not just sci-fi dilettantes… this stuff has real impact.

The Solar Decathlon makes stars of engineers, architects and designers, who investigate the latest technologies to trim the fat of a typical home’s energy use–the University of Maryland’s home uses just 15% of the energy a typical home from that state.1  As they work through the process, they develop a lot of real-world skills, from figuring out how to fund their project to working with contractors and figuring out how a house works.  This paves the way for many of them to enter into the green jobs market.  Members of the team from Cornell’s 2005 team formed an architecture and energy consulting called Zero Energy, which brings their Solar Decathlon experience to the marketplace.

Some are even pursuing patents for designs developed for their houses.  Inspired by a lecture on campus, the 2007 Maryland Team developed a Liquid Desiccant cooling system that uses a saline solution to cool the house by lowering humidity.  The design takes advantage of their material by creating an indoor waterfall that has been a central design feature for both Maryland’s 2007 Solar Decathlon and the present team.  Their design was so popular that after the 2007 decathlon, the team decided it was time to make a business plan and apply for a patent.  As they await their patent, the 2011 Maryland team is experimenting with the liquid desiccant in their solar home.  Their design uses two liquid desiccant waterfalls inside the house to dehumidify household air and uses heat captured by the solar thermal system to process and reuse the desiccant in the waterfalls.
(read the whole story on their blog)

In addition to the liquid desiccant system, the team has also used a Energy Recovery Ventilator (ERV), a commercially available product from Ultimate Air, which provides ventilation and air filtration while moderating the heat and moisture exchange from the outside air. The HVAC system will contribute to Maryland’s energy savings considerably.   The house is so efficient that its solar panels provide all the energy it needs on a yearly basis.

So, despite the president’s reticence to trot out his green jobs agenda last week, many people are forging ahead.  According to a recent report by Bracken Hendricks at the Center for American Progress, we’d be remiss not to see opportunities in the field.  Some highlights from their report:

• If we retrofitted 40% of the nation’s residential and commercial building stock, we would create 625,000 jobs in 10 years and generate64 billion per year in cost savings for U.S. energy ratepayers (about300 to1,200/family)
• Modern retrofitting techniques and technologies can reduce energy use by up to 40% per home, on average that translates to a savings of760/year.
• The proposed efficiency incentive program, Home Star establishes a two year6 billion dollar rebate program providing direct consumer incentives for homeowners to purchase energy saving upgrades in single-family homes and would create 186,000 jobs.

Even more importantly, efficiency retrofit jobs can’t be shipped overseas.  Workers here in the U.S. can perform this work, as long as training programs–like the Solar Decathlon–continue to inspire the next generation of workers to enter the clean energy economy.  Planet Forward is highlighting their work for the whole month of September and I hope you will join us.  Go over to Planet Forward’s Solar Decathlon page and check out some of the teams who have put together innovative, beautiful homes–would you live in one of those homes?  Vote for your favorite and help them get on TV!  We will feature the winner of our voting contest on PBS’s Nightly Business Report.

1. The average house in Maryland uses 100.5 million BTU/ year according to the EIA (household data from US Census), and according to the specs provided to Planet Forward by the Maryland team, their house uses just 30 million BTU/year.

Harry Shearer is best known and loved as the voice behind Mr. Burns, Smithers, Ned Flanders, Rev. Lovejoy and Scratchy in The Simpsons or the cucumber scene in This is Spinal Tap, but his latest movie is all serious, though it might make you love him more.  “Most funny people are dark serious guys and gals underneath,” he told Planet Forward’s Frank Sesno in an interview last week.

Within the first 10 minutes the movie he presents a strong argument for why the hurricane was NOT a natural disaster, but instead a man-made disaster created by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.  Using some nifty graphics, he shows a map of New Orleans, showing where the famous levees broke, and as the eerie blue water washes across the city, it becomes pretty clear that bad engineering — not nature  — caused the flooding that devastated this great city.

We’ve fixed the problem, right? Not according to whistleblower Maria Garzino. “In the event of a Katrina-level storm, the City of New Orleans is just as vulnerable to catastrophic flooding as it was in 2005,” she said in a letter to the Obama Administration.  The U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) agrees. From their own report: “The government and the public cannot reasonably trust that the flood control system in place in New Orleans possesses reliability and integrity.”

What’s even more frustrating is that there are good solutions to prevent flooding in coastal cities and you don’t have to look far to find it: natural marshlands.  “Human engineering,” says Mr. Shearer, “that doesn’t mimic what nature already does… is doomed.”  Some engineers in New Orleans have gone so far as to ask Dutch engineers how they confront the same issues in the hopes of using those ideas to develop a more sensible long-term plan.

Restoring “nature’s buffer” — marshlands — would also help New Orleans stop sinking, according to Mr. Shearer.  The natural process that brings silt down the Mississippi would resupply the marsh and help it “grow” about the rising sea level.

We had a fascinating conversation with Mr. Shearer. I would encourage all of you to watch:

What do you think? Can we be inspired by nature to adapt to climate change?  What solutions have you seen in your city?  Tell us at Planet Forward.

This constant flooding has forced the city to develop an innovative flood preparation network. Planet Forward producer, Victoria Reiss talked to Porntep Techapaibul, the Deputy Governor of Bangkok about their flood plan, which includes a system of dykes and underground tunnels that direct the water away from the city.

WATCH:

This system has prepared Bangkok for a future of rising sea levels and increased storms — both of which are predicted to result from climate change.

What do you think of Bangkok’s flood prevention system? What is your city doing to adapt to climate change? Submit YOUR ideas at Planet Forward.

Villanova University marine scientist Nathaniel Weston is studying this problem to see how both land use and climate change can impact habitat in tidal marshes.  He’s discovering that rising sea levels can actually cause marshes to grow in very different ways, a problem that is very real to people around the world who depend on those marshlands for food.

One of those communities is in Nam Dimh Vietnam, where Planet Forward producer, Victoria Riess, went recently to see how they were adapting to climate change.  A rice farming community, the women in Nam Dimh are seeing more and more saltwater intrusion into the rice fields they maintain.  One solution comes from a traditional technique: to mix limestone with the soil to extract the salt.

We heard from Dr. Weston about his work and asked him his thoughts on this traditional technique.  See what he has to say:

While mixing limestone may help to extract the sodium ion from the soil, the only real solution to the problem is to flush their field with freshwater.  Unfortunately, those freshwater supplies are being endangered by the same problem.  The environmental group, Natural Resources Defense Council, released a report this week that identifies the coastal cities of Los Angeles, San Francisco and Miami as cities whose aquifers are being contaminated by seawater.

What steps should communities be taking to hold the salt and save iconic natural landscapes like the Everglades and the Chesapeake Bay?  Let us know at Planet Forward!