Why is my Brighter Climate Futures Transformation Plan and Book Unique?
 
By Dr. Hari Lamba
 
People keep asking me as to what is different or better about my transformation plan and new book. Why should they listen to me, when there are other proposals or plans out there? Well here is why.
 
Because it is the only transformation plan and book that provides a complete quantitative time bound Global plan that will provide plenty of clean renewable energy, rid us of the carbon emissions of fossil fuels, minimize global average temperature rise, and leave us with rejuvenated forests, coastal ecosystems and a regenerative agriculture, for a clean and beautiful Earth with a good life for all.
 
All other plans out there call for a significant level of fossil fuel use by 2050. This includes the scenarios by the International Energy Agency and IRENA (international renewable energy agency). “Drawdown” is a very good reference book with benefits and costs of options, as well as a good ranking of options, but it does not come close to providing a plan, and nor does it take up the issues related to replacing fossil fuels. Jacobson provides lists of quantitative renewable energy options for different US states and about 120 nations and has very good information. But what he proposes also does not amount to a plan in the sense of how we transition out of fossil fuels in all sectors of the economy. Nobody talks about how fossil fuels will be replaced in all sectors with renewable energy. For example, how will fossil fuel power plants be replaced with renewable energy power plants? For the US, the Biden plan is good, and definitely better than the destructive approach of Trump, but does not go far enough. By including fracking for natural gas production and talking about carbon capture and sequestration, he is allowing fossil fuels to be part of the plan.
 
My global transformation plan is the ONLY one out there that provides a road map of what, how, where and when. We cannot keep global average temperature rise below 1.5 Celsius, or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit unless we totally transition out of fossil fuels. Only less than 1% of the Earth’s land area worth of solar panels is needed to produce ALL the world’s energy needs. We need to replace fossil fuels with solar+battery+hydrogen (SBH) power plants plus rejuvenated ecosystems. My book introduces the revolutionary concept of Solar-Electric-Hydrogen Highways that will transform all of the world’s road transport to renewable energy – either directly (by solar charging), or by hydrogen, also produced with renewable energy. We overcome the variability of renewable (mainly solar) energy by storing it in large battery systems and making large commercial quantities of hydrogen and ammonia. We need to solve climate change now! My transformation plan and book is the only one out there which lays it out: when we do it we will have “Brighter Climate Futures”
https://www.brighterclimatefutures.com/the-book.html 
 
The transformation I am proposing is quantitative and time bound in order to keep the global temperature rise at or below 1.5 degrees Celsius, or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit. It describes quantitatively what is needed, and then describes in detail a strategy of what, when, how and where. It becomes even more meaningful by providing detailed quantitative transformation plans for the global level and then for all high emitter “nations”  - the US (including California), China, India and the European Union.
 
It proposes a way of having plenty of renewable energy for all our global expanding energy needs (conservation and energy efficiency are significant, but there is no talk of it being inadequate for our economic needs), makes bold proposals to expand major global ecosystems as carbon sinks (that make a first major step towards restoring biodiversity and stem the massive extinction of species that is occurring), meets carbon emission requirements by essentially replacing fossil fuels, and deals with all other aspects such as disaster management, transformation of agriculture, addresses the jobs, economy, just transition and energy democracy aspects, and the describes the global organizational and funding strategy to implement the plan. Then, it not only defines a Global Green New Deal (GND), but also shows how both the US and the Global Green New Deals can be implemented. There is no other plan or proposal that does all that.
 
Other proposals for climate solutions are of one of the following types: they make qualitative suggestions and suggest directions, provide good quantitative reference information but do not say what will be done when, make quantitative proposals or projections but are not designed to meet the temperature rise goals or do not say what needs to be done by when and how, or are very good in a particular area but not comprehensive. Stalwarts like Bill McKibben and Al Gore have carried the banner for the last two decades and done a creditable job qualitatively proposing and championing climate change solutions. These are all good efforts in the direction of solutions and each provides some value, but they are not comprehensive and are mostly quantitatively inadequate. All of these are described in the book and compared with my proposed transformation plan.
 
Read the endorsement by Paul Fenn, that appears on the back cover of my book to understand the importance of my transformation plan and book!!
 
"Climate change: upping the ambition,"  a chapter title in Lamba's book, encapsulates his mission and peculiar criterion. Better Climate Futures compares with Hawken’s Drawdown book as a plan compares with a list of technologies, and is geographically specific, a key criterion of decarbonization, not only as to which technologies fit which places, but also as to the even more critical question of locally specific policy pathways, highlighting the advent of Community Choice Aggregation in the United States, for example - making the ideas in play actionable for readers in real world conditions, and in the increasingly short timeframe for climate mobilization.”
-Paul Fenn, Local Power LLC - Creator of Green Bonds and Community Choice Aggregation (CCA)
 
Order the book and read and see for yourself!
 
From Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Brighter-Climate-Futures-Ecosystem-Transformation/dp/1587905280/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2IF6LV2RLX93L&dchild=1&keywords=brighter+climate+futures+hari+lamba&qid=1602790839&sprefix=brighter+climate%2Caps%2C199&sr=8-1
 
From Barnes & Noble (Bookstore – US)
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/brighter-climate-futures-hari-lamba/1137523887?ean=9781587905285
 
YouTube Video - Slide Presentation (10 mins) - Brighter Climate Futures

ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNF5ehUoy1k
 

NEWS: Article published on Coastal Ecosystems
Our first article got published on the importance coastal ecosystems or “Blue Carbon” in San Francisco’s Bay area! This is in the Sierra Club’s San Francisco Bay Chapter’s Yodeler Magazine
 
Read the article here and understand why the massive global expansion of these ecosystems that I have proposed in my book is so important.
 
Article recently published in Yodeler, magazine of the San Francisco Bay Chapter - Sierra Club – Importance of Bay Area Coastal Ecosystems
https://www.sierraclub.org/sites/www.sierraclub.org/files/sce-authors/u1054/Yodeler_Fall%202020_FINAL.pdf
 
We need to rejuvenate our coastal ecosystems on ALL of our Earth’s non-ice coastline. This has tremendous potential for absorbing carbon in the plants, trees and soils of these ecosystems, that are like mangrove swamps, salt marshes and sea grasses. Per area, these can absorb more carbon than even tropical forests, which is why these have been called “Blue Carbon”, as compared to the “Green Carbon” of forests. At the same time this begins to reverse the tremendous extinction of species, in this case all types of ocean and shore life. We need to stop the destruction of these coastal ecosystems in the name of the wrong kinds of “development” and ecologically destructive shrimp and fish farms that pollute with chemical fertilizers and anti-biotics. We need anywhere from a few hundred meters (or yards to up to 10 kilometers (6 miles) worth of ecosystems on all our shorelines. The expansion of coastal ecosystems will do much to restore ocean life, restore collapsing fisheries and help protect shorelines in case of storms.
 
Your Brighter Climate Futures champion – Hari Lamba
www.brighterclimatefutures.com
​

Here is both a ringing endorsement and a detailed video of the global energy, climate and ecosystem plan that I am proposing, and which I have described in my new book, “Brighter Climate Futures” that is available from Amazon. You can also go to the Book Page and click on the ordering options! The first order of business globally is to replace all coal fired power plants with renewable energy power plants. See the book for details.
"My long experience with financing solar energy tells me that to solve our climate problem requires an energy transformation of the type that Hari has proposed. He has the background to understand the technologies, as well as the economic, political and ecological aspects of the solutions, that makes his transformation plan truly credible. Let’s do it!” - Jigar Shah, Founder of SunEdison. Order the book, read it and then push for acceptance and implementation of the global transformation. Here is the ten minute YouTube video that describes my overall global transformation plan and book
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNF5ehUoy1k

​Hari Lamba Video Conversation with Olga Bolotina of the Sierra Club August 7, 2020
We had a very interesting video conversation on Facebook with Olga Bolotina, the Chair of the San Francisco Bay Chapter of the Sierra Club, who is also a sustainability expert, where we talked about my background in terms of how I came to the US, what influenced my thinking about global and US environment and development issues, and how I got educated about and then involved in climate change. On the way we had an interesting conversation about how you judge the quality of a democracy that I had in my earlier book, Rethinking Progress. Towards the tail end, we also discussed the book that is being published by Regent Press titled, “Brighter Climate Futures – A Global Energy, Climate and Ecosystem Transformation,” by myself (Dr. Hari Lamba) that outlines a comprehensive and time bound plan to solve the climate crisis by 2050 in a way that we end up with plenty of clean renewable energy and a healthier and more beautiful planet.
The video can be found in two places now:

• YouTube: https://youtu.be/9gE2WZ2Nkso 
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SierraClubSFBayChapter/videos/?ref=page_internal

 
Endorsement of the Book by Jigar Shah, Founder of Sun Edison
"My long experience with financing solar energy tells me that to solve our climate problem requires an energy transformation of the type that Hari has proposed. He has the background to understand the technologies, as well as the economic, political and ecological aspects of the solutions, that makes his transformation plan truly credible. Let’s do it!”

​PV Magazine reported on April 22, 2020 that Belgium was the first nation in Europe to get rid of coal, and Austria is due to close down its last power plant. However, two years ahead of schedule, Sweden shut down its last operating coal fired power plant ahead of schedule. The power utility Stockholm Exergi announced that it will permanently close its coal fired cogeneration plant in eastern Stockholm. Their chief executive Anders Exelrud said that they realized they not only have to eliminate their carbon emissions from fossil fuels, but also have to reduce the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Eleven nations of the European Union (of 28 nations) have decided to get out of coal during the next decade. However, Germany, the biggest producer and user of coal in Europe, as of yet, does not plan to get out of coal until 2038.”
 
https://www.pv-magazine.com/2020/04/22/sweden-exits-coal-two-years-early/