Rafe Pomerance, Early Climate Change Activist, Dies at 79

Rafe Pomerance, an environmental lobbyist who helped organize the first congressional hearings on climate change and contributed to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, died Thursday at age 79. His son Benjamin Cooley confirmed the death, which was caused by lung cancer.

Early discovery and advocacy Pomerance first encountered the issue in the late 1970s while working as a clean-air lobbyist for Friends of the Earth. A government report on coal liquefaction warned on page 66 that carbon dioxide emissions could cause a significant and damaging rise in global temperature.

He arranged meetings between geophysicist Gordon J.F. MacDonald and government officials.

the 1980s Pomerance persuaded members of Congress to hold hearings. He testified in 1984 that consequences would become irreversible for several centuries once they were known. In July 1988 NASA scientist James Hansen told a Senate panel convened by Senator Tim Wirth that warming from greenhouse gases could already be detected.

Later that week Wirth, at Pomerance’s urging, called for the first global emissions-reduction target. Pomerance later helped negotiate the Kyoto Protocol, the first binding treaty requiring industrialized nations to cut greenhouse-gas emissions. Studies found that ratifying countries reduced annual emissions by as much as 16 percent over ten years.

Later roles and family After leaving government in 1999, Pomerance founded the Climate Policy Center and held leadership positions at Clean Air Cool Planet, American Rivers, and the League of Conservation Voters. He also advocated for Arctic protection, arguing that the fate of Greenland was the fate of coastal cities including Miami and Tampa.

Born July 19, 1946, in New York City, Pomerance grew up in Cos Cob, Connecticut. He is survived by his wife Lenore Pomerance, children Benjamin Cooley, Ethan Pomerance, and two siblings, along with seven grandchildren.

““Rafe knew his science very well, and he was not righteous about it. His was a very applied kind of advocacy.””