SANTA FE, N.M. — Today, at the conclusion of Climate Week, Architecture 2030 delivered the 'silver bullet' for solving the global warming crisis in a full-page ad in The New York Times. According to Edward Mazria, founder of Architecture 2030, the only way to stop global warming is to stop coal.

• We must stop burning coal or we don't make it.
• Coal is the only fossil fuel that can push the planet to dangerous climate change, resulting in irreversible glacial melt and sea level rise.
• We can meet our energy needs without coal.
• The Department of Labor and Social Security Administration have paid out $42.3 billion for the Black Lung Program.

With global reserves of oil and natural gas being depleted and their prices increasing, coal is the only fossil fuel plentiful and supposedly cheap enough to push the planet to 450 parts per million (ppm) CO₂ in the atmosphere. Although many believe that coal is necessary to meet our increasing energy needs, Mazria asserts that these needs can be met without coal.

At 450 ppm atmospheric CO₂, scientists project dangerous climate change with potentially irreversible glacial melt and sea level rise. We are currently at 385 ppm, and are increasing atmospheric concentrations of CO₂ at approximately 2 ppm annually. At this growth rate, we will reach 450 ppm in 2035.

Architecture 2030 is calling for an immediate moratorium on the 151 coal-fired power plants now under development in the US, and the phasing out of the more than 600 US coal plants currently in operation. This puts an immediate cap on coal plant emissions while allowing enough time to retrain coal workers for healthier jobs.

"Coal is not cheap," Mazria emphasizes. The Department of Labor and Social Security Administration, for example, have made $42.3 billion in Black Lung Program payouts since 1971. This figure does not take into account administrative costs, other black lung programs, health and environmental costs or the billions in government funding provided to the coal industry.

Seventy-six percent of all electrical energy produced at coal plants is consumed by the Building Sector. The 2030 Challenge, officially launched by Architecture 2030 in January 2006, is a global initiative to reduce building energy use of new and renovated buildings by a minimum of 50 percent, which negates the need for new coal plants. "Renovating to 50 percent allows you to build new buildings at 50 percent, flattening out the sector's CO₂ emissions curve," says Mazria. By reducing the energy use of new buildings an additional 10 percent every five years until 2030, and by using renewable energy, we ultimately negate the need for existing coal plants.

In the ad, Architecture 2030 also debunks the belief that reducing Energy Intensity (energy consumption per GDP) by 1 percent will have an effect on CO₂ emissions and global warming. The US has reduced its Energy Intensity by 1.5 percent on average every year since 1980 while increasing its CO₂ emissions by approx. 40 percent.

"By placing a moratorium on coal, we avert the worst consequences of climate change. If we begin now, we make it," says Mazria. "If we wait, even for a few years, this window of opportunity is lost."?

Architecture 2030 is a non-profit organization working to achieve a dramatic reduction in the global-warming-causing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of buildings by changing the way they are designed and constructed.

Contact Info:

Kristina Kershner, Director
Architecture 2030
Tel : 505-930-7799
E-mail : Kershner@architecture2030.org

Website : Architecture 2030