by BRAD MACDONALD

LEADERSHIP STARTS TODAY.

The faces of environmental leadership in the world today know that big problems like climate change or oil dependency can’t be solved tomorrow. But these five political heavyweights, hailing from Europe, Australia, Asia, and the good ol’ U.S. of A, know that big changes start with new legislation and lots of cooperation. It also takes courage to build a political career on new ideas and technologies. Take Iceland’s Geir H. Haarde, who won’t let up on renewable energy policy, despite a near-crippling economic disaster earlier this year. Powering Iceland using geothermal energy from volcanic activity? That’s not science fiction-it’s reality in Scandinavia. Check out this video to see Iceland’s geothermal stations in action. Or consider South Korea’s Lee Myung-bak, who has helped make environmental awareness and conservatiion a huge priority to his constituents, while adding clean rapid-transit buses to help reduce air pollution. From ratifying the Kyoto Proposal to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, these guys (and gal) are using outside-the-box strategies to make a difference (well,#5 promises he’ll be making a difference). We salute these five leaders for giving environmental concerns the attention they deserve. Hey, it’s our planet. We’d better take care of it.

Read the article below!:

ICELAND’S GEIR H. HAARDE

Despite the economic pummeling Iceland has taken in recent months, its eco cred remains top-notch. The island nation gets 80 percent of its energy needs from renewable sources, an impressive achievement even for a country of 300,000 people. We posted videos of Iceland’s geothermal stations earlier this year. Even with the economic downturn, Prime Minister Haarde remains committed to making renewable energy a new pillar of the Icelandic economy.

Earlier this year, Haarde was named the greenest political leader by NEWSWEEK. He has been lauded not only for his leadership in expanding geothermal supply, but also for training scientists around the world as Iceland has headed the geothermal department of the United Nations University. With government backing, Icelandic companies are exporting their expertise in geothermal to places as far-flung as Djibouti, China and southern California.

GERMANY’S ANGELA MERKEL

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is one of the few politicians left in the international arena who helped hammer out the original global warming agreement at Kyoto in 1997. Merkel’s environmental leadership goes way back – she was named German environment minister in 1994. She has pushed Germany to raise renewable energy to 50% of the electricity portfolio by 2050. It’s currently 12% – compare the United Kingdom’s 3% – and is on track to be 20% by 2020.

Since January 2007, when Germany assumed the presidency of the European Union, Angela Merkel has prioritized climate change as a key issue for her administration. Merkel is spearheading the EU’s bold energy plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 20% below 1990 levels by 2020.

In January, The Guardian named German Chancellor Angela Merkel as one of 50 people who could save the planet.

Still Germany is far from earning its stripes as a truly green nation. A recent study found that 10 of the top 30 worst polluting power plants in Europe are located in Germany.

AUSTRALIA’S KEVIN RUDD

Australia still produces more than 80% of its electricity from coal, and its economy depends significantly on coal exports, which is a huge problem in a new green economic era. But Prime Minister Kevin Rudd won the election last year partly on a platform to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, and by a margin so large the media called it a “Ruddslide.” He then switched his predecessor’s long aversion to the agreement and signed in last December.

Rudd is also trying to build up renewables, and set a target for all states to produce 20% of their energy from renewable sources by 2020. We recently reported that South Australia has already reached the target ten years ahead of schedule.

However Rudd has also begun to push hard for clean coal, a disconcerting development for environmentalists. In September, Rudd made the rounds in New York looking for an Australia-based international program to ramp up research and development of clean-coal technology.

Rudd backs a clean coal strategy with three tenets: first, develop new coal-burning power plants that emit carbon dioxide in a more-concentrated stream. Second, capture the carbon dioxide and funnel it into pipes. Third, transport it to places where it can be injected underground for long-term storage.

According to the Wall Street Journal’s Environmental Capital blog, Australia says it will commit up to 100 million Australian dollars a year toward a “global carbon capture and storage institute.” His objective is to push hard on achieving a goal laid out this summer by the Group of Eight leading nations: Deploy some 20 industrial-scale carbon-capture coal plants by 2020.

SOUTH KOREA’S LEE MYUNG-BAK

As the head of Hyundai, the country’s largest conglomerate, in the 1970s and 80s, Lee helped build much of postwar South Korea transforming a poor, farm-based economy into one of Asia’s great success stories.

When Lee became mayor of Seoul in 2002, he helped clean a dirty waterway that had been buried beneath a concrete highway system in the 1970s. He also overhauled the city’s transportation system, adding clean rapid-transit buses.

Recently, as president, Lee’s government launched new energy conservation program, which requires yellow label on electronic devices that spend more than one watt in standby mode. The plan has a second phase that may soon be implemented, where car owners will be forbidden to drive on one designated weekday, and violators will be fined.

Koreans are increasingly prioritizing environmental issues alongside their president: a recent poll indicated that 53 percent think environmental protection is more important than economic development.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA (???)

If President-elect Obama follows through with many of his campaign promises, he may swiftly earn a place among the world’s most inspiring green leaders. Certainly his mention of “a planet in peril” during his speech on election night was encouraging.

His senior advisers have said Obama will introduce a major climate change bill in an attempt to bring the US back into the international environment fold, according to The Guardian.

He is also expected to announce a goal of reducing US greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 and then cutting them by 80% by 2050. Obama supports a cap-and-trade system with carbon permits auctioned off to industries to encourage them to reduce emissions.

During the campaign, Obama spoke of a $175 billion economic-stimulus package intended to revamp the US energy economy by creating five million new “green” jobs. You can also see our post on 7 Executive Orders President Obama Should Sign to Protect the Environment: Center for Progressive Reform.

Harvest Power

Originally posted 2010-03-10 08:26:15. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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