WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-Vermont Couple Attends Copenhagen Climate Change Summit

Vermont Couple Attends Copenhagen Climate Change Summit

White River Junction, Vermont – December 11, 2009

A Vermont couple is attending the massive worldwide climate change summit in Copenhagen.  They say the summit is a good step, but real progress takes action.

Dori and Jeff Wolfe started a solar panel business out of their home in Strafford over 10 years ago. Today, they have offices in 13 states and provide solar energy to homes and businesses.

The Wolfes are attending the climate change summit in Copenhagen to talk about the benefits of their business.

They say goals for renewable energy should have been the focus of Washington politics leading into the summit, but instead Washington has been clouded by the health care debate.  They believe in order to achieve real progress, Congress and the Obama administration need to show a unified front.

"That is what needs to happen, he needs to speak with his government behind him," says Dori Wolfe.

The Wolfe's say the goal of Copenhagen should be to reduce overall greenhouse gasses by over 85 percent by the year 2050. But they also say that world leaders like the United States and China simply need to start talking.

"So China will actually state what their goal is right now and the U.S. will state what their goal is right now," says Jeff Wolfe.  "And by taking all the worldwide goals, that provides the framework that we can actually pull together in the summertime and have a treaty."

And the Wolfes are the first to admit that any worldwide progress on climate change probably translates to money in their pockets.

The Strafford couple says that climate change is an issue that everyone in the world has to take responsibility for. They say people can do their part by something as simple as writing their local senator here at home.

Adam Sullivan – WCAX News