Happy World Environment Day

There's good news and bad news. . .

In honor of world environment day, it appears, Donald Trump said he was directing ‌hundreds of millions of dollars to support U.S. coal power plants. Trump invoked the Defense Production Act, a 1950 law granting presidents broad authority over industries deemed critical to national security, to fund $425 million in upgrades to 13 coal-fired power plants and $75 million to support the proposed West Gateway coal export terminal in Oakland, California.

On the other hand, this German complementary currency has a lot of potential to reward environmental behavior.

DW reports that a micro financial system that has been running for more than two decades — and has recently evolved into a tool for cutting carbon emissions in this picturesque corner of southeastern Germany.

This is so cool!

“The Chiemgauer was born in 2003 at a local high school, where economics teacher Christian Gelleri and a group of students were looking for a way to support local businesses losing customers to shopping malls and big chains.

Their solution was a new currency, designed to keep money circulating within the region. They printed it, handed it out and one by one locals began using the Chiemgauer and stores began accepting it.

Slowly, a classroom idea turned into a financial system.

“Five million Chiemgauers are being spent annually now,” said Gelleri, who still heads the association managing the currency, Chiemgauer e.V. Today, €1 equals one Chiemgauer.

Under German law, printing and using money other than euros can be a criminal offense. But because the Chiemgauer is confined to the region and used by only around 4,200 people and 300 businesses, Germany’s central bank, the Deutsche Bundesbank, tolerates it. Those who want to use the money must sign up to the Chiemgauer association.

“We use our Chiemgauer earnings to pay the supplier we buy our fresh ingredients from,” she explained. This way, the money goes around, either in cash or electronically with a special card that works with regular bank accounts.

To keep a note valid and the Chiemgauer moving, holders must buy a small stamp every six months. The stamp for a 10-Chiemgauer note costs about €0.30 ($0.35), for example. After three years, bills expire entirely. Private users cannot convert Chiemgauers to euros. Businesses can convert the funds, but pay a 5% fee to do so. That fee then funds the currency’s operations and supports local nonprofit organizations.

Buy balcony solar, get free Chiemgauers

In recent years, Gelleri and the Chiemgauer organizers have introduced an environmental dimension to their currency. Residents can now earn bonus Chiemgauers by making climate-friendly choices — whether that means getting jeans repaired instead of buying new ones, using car-sharing platforms or insulating homes with natural materials. These actions are rewarded with bonuses ranging from one to 200 Chiemgauers.

“The owner of this set of solar panels got 100 Chiemgauers,” said Gelleri, pointing at two panels set up in a backyard in Traunstein. “In 20 years, this balcony power set will save 11 tons of carbon dioxide.”

Local residents and businesses fund the rewards by contributing to a shared pool to offset their emissions — a kind of mini emissions trading system. For every ton of carbon offset through the fund, 9 tons are saved through the climate-friendly behavior it incentivizes.

Similar climate bonus schemes have since spread from Bavaria to four more regions across Germany. Over the past four years, it has saved 12,800 tons of CO2 in total — equivalent to the emissions of around 2,000 German cars over the same period, according to independent auditors TÜV Nord.

A small, global trend

The Chiemgauer is far from unique. Around 300 “complementary currencies” — named for the way they operate alongside a country’s official currency — exist worldwide. Most are concentrated in Europe and Brazil, where the focus is on promoting the local economy and welfare. But as a side effect, they also reduce transport emissions.

“Money can be designed,” she said. “If money is created to reward pro-environmental behaviors, then you’re going to have more people behaving pro-environmentally.”

Voters in California City Favor Permanent Ban on Data Centers

Monterey Park, outside Los Angeles, appeared to become the first U.S. city where voters passed such a measure.

The New York Times reports:

Voters in Monterey Park, Calif., appear to have overwhelmingly approved a ban on data centers, becoming what is believed to be the first city in the nation where residents passed a measure permanently prohibiting the warehouses.

The referendum in favor of a ban, Measure NDC, which was winning with more than 86 percent of the vote on Wednesday in an unofficial total, was in response to a proposal for a data center that drew fierce opposition in the city just east of downtown Los Angeles.

“We were all hoping for big numbers,” said Steve Kung, a co-founder of the group behind the measure, No Data Center Monterey Park.

The vote reflected increasing resistance around the country to data centers, the warehouses that fuel the artificial intelligence industry. Opponents say they create incessant noise, drive up electricity rates because of the power required, don’t provide enough good-paying jobs and can worsen shortages of water, which is essential to keeping the machines cool.

Proponents say they’re a good source of tax revenues for municipalities; that they provide jobs for the community; that concerns about noise pollution and electricity rates are overstated; and that data centers can overall be good for society.

Cities, counties and states have enacted pauses or bans on data centers, but Monterey Park is thought to be the first to do so permanently at the ballot box — a place where Californians have a long history of effecting change.

The opposition in Monterey Park took hold in January, when hundreds turned up to a City Council meeting to oppose the proposed 247,000-square-foot data center. The meeting drew so many speakers that it carried on past midnight. Soon, yard signs saying “No Data Center” in English and Chinese began sprouting up around in a community that is predominantly Asian American and has long been a hub for Chinese immigrants in Los Angeles.

At City Council meetings this year, some union workers spoke in support of the data center, citing the jobs it would create, according to local news media reports. But they were outnumbered, and the Council, which unanimously opposed the project, voted in March to add the measure to the city ballot for Tuesday’s statewide election.

Several weeks later, HMC StratCap notified the city that it would abandon the project.

My Country, Backwards Sam

The Trump administration has spent the last 16 months putting up roadblocks to climate action. In April representatives of more than 50 countries met in Santa Marta, Colombia, for the first international conference for a transition away from fossil fuels. Burning fossil fuels is the primary driver of climate change. When asked why the U.S. would not attend the conference, a spokesperson for the state department told NPR in an email that “the president has been clear that the United States will not participate in the bogus climate agenda.”

Countries attending included the United Kingdom, France, and major fossil fuel producers like Nigeria, Australia and Mexico. A representative from the state of California was present, as were several representatives from cities from other countries, even when their federal governments didn’t send anyone.

Scientists say that coordinated actions from countries are necessary to quickly reduce planet heating emissions. But policies around things like energy policy, transportation, and building codes are often implemented at the state and municipal level. These things have a huge impact on emissions.

Katherine Hayhoe, Talking Climate reports:

This dispatch from Montana describes how some tribes are creating their own climate plans that incorporate Traditional Ecological Knowledge. The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes’ plan focuses on reducing wildfire risk. Michael Durglo, the tribes’ climate change coordinator, has installed air quality sensors across the reservation. He’s also leading training sessions teaching people to build their own air filters to help during wildfire season.

This story from Utah details how a coalition of cities and towns in the conservative state are leading a push to transition to renewable energy. Today, three-quarters of Utah’s electricity comes from coal and natural gas. “The fact that our efforts here have been happening over the course of multiple federal administrations,” said Emily Quinton, sustainability director of Summit County, “shows that at the local level, you can continue to move on climate strategies regardless of the federal winds.”

Meanwhile, Denver CO has an ambitious plan to heat and cool its buildings downtown with geothermal energy, some of which will come from the warmth put out by treated wastewater. And Portland OR‘s had a billion-dollar climate fund since 2019, which residents created by passing a 1% sales tax on large corporations operating in the city limits. Since then, proceeds have built a community solar project, given out more than 20,000 free AC units to low-income families, and paid for energy retrofits of more than 3,000 homes.

Happy World Environment Day, Earthlings. Keep on restoring the earth.