Consultant Dan
07 October 2010
Let the global work party begin!
Early this morning President Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives spent 45minutes installing PV solar panels on the roof of his official residence, kicking off a Global Work Party for the climate.
We had a great boost two days ago when the US President Barack Obama announced that solar PV and hot water would be installed on the roof of the White House.
The global work party is organized through the 350.org network and it is going to be huge. There are 6631 events organised in 188 countries, with 3 days remaining for people to register their own event. These events can be anything that increases community resilience in the face of climate change and helps cure our addiction to fossil fuels: repairing bikes, digging community gardens, promoting public transport, educating people about conserving energy or putting up solar panels, of course.
Even by 8am the equatorial sun is intense in Male, the tiny capital city island. Most of the media and Government onlookers moved across the courtyard, to watch the President from under the shade of the grand old trees. Bloggers and other media can download photographs from the Presdient’s official photo stream.
The project was organized by Brian Somers, a smart young guy who works for Sungevity, a solar company founded by my old friend Danny Kennedy. My role has been liaison with the Government, media and partner organisations and PR. Danny, Brian and Sungevity’s legendary solar installer Heath worked with the President on the roof.
President Nasheed is an amazing man. He was imprisoned 11 times I think and tortured twice by the regime, during the struggle for democracy. Today he was like a kid with a new toy on the roof of Mulee Aage (the official residence), helping to move the PV panels around and secure them in place on the mounts set in the roof.
I spoke with Mr Mohamed Aslam, the Minister of Environment, while his President was on the roof, getting his hands dirty for clean energy. The Minister asked what I thought of the UN’s climate negotiations. I said that the Maldives is probably best to continue with its pragmatic approach, focusing on its own needs and capacity for clean energy transition, not waiting around for a global consensus on action.
The 350.org work party draws on this same spirit of determination and uses the power of social media to bring together millions of people. This makes it one of the few truly inspiring developments in global climate politics of the past decade.
After coming down from the roof, sweating but excited, the President spoke forcefully to the assembled mediaabout the need to make the switch from oil generated electricity to solar. His nation has to make the transition to solar for economic reasons; it cannot afford the cost and price insecurity of fossil fuels. Oil is a hindrance to development in the Maldives, not a resource.
Danny spoke after the President. He talked about the 11.5kW system, which was designed by Sungevity from California, using satellite images and its unique computer modelling system. Like all of us, Danny admires the commitment that President Nasheed made to the Copenhagen climate conference last year, to make the Maldives carbon-neutral. No other country has made such a profound pledge.
Last night the President and Danny did an international media teleconference. Some great stories are already filed, on the Huffington Post, Washington Post and Tree Hugger.
The Maldives lies on an average of just 1.5 metres above the sea, making it one of the world’s most climate vulnerable countries. Today it rose above the climate impasse and showed leadership. This weekend everyone else can do the same thing, wherever they live. The time for the solar economy is now.
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