Colorado Climate Network Programs
Legislative Updates
Among the Network priorities adopted by the Steering Committee is tracking state legislature actions, Hickenlooper Administration goals and initiatives, and state agency policies relevant to local programs, and informing Network members about all of these. RMCO’s legislative lobbyist already tracks and informs Network members of legislation of potential interest to them. Listed below are the legislative updates that summarize important information and update the status of such legislation and policies:
Wrap-up of 2013 Session of the Colorado General Assembly
Wrap-up of 2012 Session of the Colorado General Assembly
Wrap-up of 2011 Session of the Colorado General Assembly
Fourth Network Workshop:"State and Local Emissions Inventories - Better Tools for Better Decisions"
April 30, 2013, 1-4 p.m., Denver Department of Environmental Health,
200 W. 14th Ave., Denver
Regularly updated inventories of heat-trapping pollution are essential for charting progress
towards
emission-reduction goals of state and local governments and for guiding new policies. This workshop
brought together leading local and state government inventory specialists to focus on how to improve
and make better use of state and local inventories to shape better decisions. The workshop featured
an unique opportunity to see the preliminary results of a new state inventory and to discuss it with the
staff of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. The workshop also offered
presentations on and exploration of the range of inventory methodologies used by Colorado
local governments and discussions about moving toward more consistency between state and local inventories and
among local inventories. Other topics included how to get the most out of inventories to communicate
progress and shape policies.
See workshop agenda, presentations, and local government inventories here.
The Network's Third Annual Conference: "Climate Change Vulnerabilities and Preparedness - Actionable Intelligence for Local Governments."
December 11, 2012, 8:30 a.m. - 5 p.m., City of Aurora Municipal Building, 15151 E. Alameda Parkway
Community leaders understand that even as they work to reduce heat-trappings emissions they must also prepare for the challenges and threats of a changing climate. This conference was designed to help attendees learn about Colorado’s unique vulnerabilities to climate disruption and what can be done to create communities more resilient to those threats. Highlighting the conference was the keynote address by Gov. John Hickenlooper, what RMCO believes to be his first speech as governor focused on climate change, which he called the “single greatest risk the globe faces.”
The Colorado Climate Network is grateful to the City of Aurora and its staff for hosting the conference, and to its prime sponsors - Avago Technologies, Stratus Consulting, and the Town of Vail, and its sponsors - the Colorado Municipal League, CSU Center for Multiscale Modeling of Atmospheric Processes, Denver Department of Environmental Health, and Populus, LLC.
See complete conference presentations, session synopses, and post-conference survey here.
Second Annual CCN Conference - December 11, 2011
"Communicating the case for local climate action: A how-to conference for local officials, staff, and others" was rated a success by the 70 attendees from local governments, non-profits, university programs, businesses, and state and federal agencies. The Network's second annual conference, was held on December 8, 2011 at the Aurora Municipal Building. The conference focused exclusively on climate communications, to equip conference attendees with information and techniques to help them more effectively communicate with others to build support for undertaking and implementing local climate programs.
See agenda and conference presentations
Inaugural CCN Conference - December 15-16, 2010
More than 90 local government officials and staff as well as leaders from other government, business, education, and nonprofit fields attended the first-ever Colorado Climate Network Conference, making the conference a success. The conference served as a major effort to strengthen and carry out the goals of the Network, which launched in 2009 to support local climate programs. Featuring presentations, workshops, and group discussions, the conference helped arm participants with the tools needed to meet the challenges and seize the opportunities facing climate, sustainability, and clean energy programs in Colorado.
See agenda and conference presentations.
Third Network Workshop - October 12, 2012
"Waste reduction - the forgotten solution to climate change" brought together attendees from
Network members
as well as non-members with resource experts to discuss waste reduction strategies
that work and that make significant
contributions to reductions of heat-trapping gases. Considered
were
what local governments can do and what the state
government should do to promote reduce
waste-stream-related emissions.
See agenda and conference presentations.
Second CCN Members-Only Workshop - March 9, 2012
"The Network’s role on state policy" workshop featured open discussions with key policy leaders from the Governor's Policy Office, the Governor's Energy Office, other state agencies, regional planning agencies, non-profits, and local programs. The goal was to identify and prioritize climate protection actions at the state level (including legislation, regulations, policies, technical support, funding, and partnerships) that the network can advance, especially in areas that cannot be fully addressed locally.
First CCN Members-Only Workshop - October 14, 2011
"Demand side versus supply side: Which basket to put your eggs in?" was the featured topic of this first, model workshop of what will be a series of Network-member-only workshops. An open discusson led by program leaders from Fort Collins and Vail addressed a key question facing all local climate programs: how much to focus on demand-side programs (energy efficiency) and how much on supply-side programs (clean energy sources). There was additional discussion of the City of Boulder's decision to ask citizens to vote on creating a new municipal utility.
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