Delegation From Disaster-Laden Sonoma County, a Test Kitchen for Climate Innovation, Attends COP27

KQED

A delegation of mayors, climate scientists, water officials and energy leaders from Sonoma County are representing the Bay Area at this year’s annual U.N. climate conference, known as COP27, underway in Egypt.

They are touting Sonoma County as one of the world’s testing grounds for big climate change solutions — including water-saving ideas and clean energy projects.

Sonoma Clean Power is the public power provider for both Santa Rosa and Rohnert Park. The power aggregator uses renewable energy as its default electricity, sourcing clean power for 87% of Sonoma and Mendocino counties. Geof Syphers, CEO for the agency, is not in Egypt but wants the team to relay a message to other local leaders: Take risks. Be a test kitchen for climate ideas.

“You don’t want to design your trillion-dollar program and have it fall on its face,” he said. “A big part of what I want to pitch is learning from these experiments and encouraging other local governments to run those experiments.”

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