Spark: RMI Statement on U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Agreement

RMI is greatly disappointed in President Trump’s decision to pull the United States out of the Paris Climate Agreement. The Paris Agreement constitutes humanity’s best effort to put a global governance mechanism in place to address the global climate change threat. The withdrawal of the United States will significantly undermine these efforts, as the U.S. is the leading emitter of greenhouse gases per capita. That being said, we salute the efforts of American states, cities, and businesses that strive to reduce emissions and whose efforts will carry on undeterred by this federal decision. Read the entire statement by RMI CEO Jules Korthenhorst.

As RMI celebrates our 35th anniversary as a nonprofit organization, we are in a very exciting, but also very critical, time in our race to a clean energy future. We recently held a web discussion, 35 Bold Ideas to Win the Clean Energy Race, with RMI CEO Jules Kortenhorst and Cofounder and Chief Scientist Amory Lovins. This second blog post from the web discussion focuses on what individuals can do to help bring us to a clean energy future and some of RMI’s work that Lovins and Kortenhorst are most excited about both domestically and internationally. Read More.

Greentech Media recently interviewed RMI principal and Energy Web Foundation cofounder Jesse Morris about blockchain technology. The Energy Web Foundation is a collaboration between RMI and Grid Singularity to accelerate the commercial deployment of blockchain technology in the energy sector. “We have a strong hypothesis that blockchain will solve a lot of long-running problems in the energy sector,” said Morris. Read More.

A 5.9 megawatt solar project broke ground last week in Aruba, one of the biggest solar parks on the island and in the Caribbean Region. At the contract signing, Prime Minister Eman stated, “Aruba has proven to the world that, although we are limited in size, we can have big dreams and important goals. Maybe we inherited an arid soil, but we are blessed with an abundance of sun and wind to turn that into energy and well-being for our society. We have translated those gifts into a vision to make our island totally sustainable by 2020.” José María Figueres and Sir Richard Branson were among the distinguished guests who attended the groundbreaking ceremony. Read More.

Rocky Mountain Institute is proud to be an official partner for New York Energy Week! The 5th Annual NYEW is June 19–23, 2017. NYEW is the industry’s cross-sector event series to create collaboration and investment for energy transformation. All Spark subscribers can use discount code RMI20 to get 20 percent off the top early bird price for the all-access pass. Read More.

What we do today to define our future—and face the urgent threat of climate change head-on—is more important than ever. Your investment in RMI will accelerate the market-led transition to a clean, prosperous, and secure low-carbon future for generations to come. Donate Today.