Many people are disappointed that we did not get a firm climate treaty from Copenhagen. However, we have to think about climate change responsibility differently. Countries should not wait for a treaty to come out of the UN. If something needs to be done, people should pressure their governments to do it with or without a global agreement. In addition, the Kyoto Protocol is in effect until 2012, so countries should still be operating under that, at least. The U.S. can operate under that at any time it chooses, but it has not chosen to do so. A new binding treaty might be treated the same way. Also, many countries, including the United States, break treaties and act in their own interests instead, with no punishment from anyone. So a “binding” treaty is not necessarily binding, or needed. If mitigating climate change and cutting emissions is the right thing to do, there is no need to wait until a binding agreement is signed through the UN. Countries need to get active cutting emissions right away and we have to pressure our governments to do that.

Why wait for federal governments to do the right thing?  States can get started now.

A report from the New Rules Project says that 31 states have the renewable resources to be “energy self-reliant”

A new report from the New Rules Project finds that over 60% of all U.S. states have the renewable energy resources to be “energy self-reliant.” (“Energy self-reliance,” as defined in the report, is a measure of how self-sufficient in energy generation a state could be if it relied entirely on its own renewable resources). The New Rules Project, a program of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, released its findings last week.

The report, “Energy Self-Reliant States: Second and Expanded Edition” describes how 31 states have the capacity to independently meet their states’ electricity demands by using wholly renewable energy sources, already at their disposal. Several states, the report notes, could use their renewable energy resources to produce electricity that meets over ten times their statewide demands. An additional ten states could generate enough electricity to meet well over half of their annual demands—again, solely from renewable sources.

Read more at Climate Progress