Power of US Cities to Mitigate Climate Change – and the Steps they Need to Take

U.S. municipal governments are showing leadership by voluntarily accounting for and reducing greenhouse gas emissions resulting from their operations. They also recognize the huge potential to influence long-term reductions from the residents and businesses in their communities, according to this new report, which can be found online.

The report summarizes findings of a joint project by the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) and ICLEI- Local Governments for Sustainability USA (ICLEI), launched in 2008 to encourage cities to voluntarily disclose greenhouse gas emissions and other information related to climate change. It found that many cities are taking strong action to address the challenges of climate change, such as by retrofitting government owned buildings, converting fleets to hybrids, and beginning to plan for the long-term impacts of climate change. However, as the scale of the climate challenge is so great, there are still considerable opportunities ahead to reduce energy use and emissions, which will also control rising costs and other risks.

The 18 participating cities were Annapolis, MD; Arlington, VA; Atlanta, GA; Burlington, VT; Chicago, IL; Denver, CO; Edina, MN; Fairfield, IA; Haverford, PA; Las Vegas, NV; New Orleans, LA; New York, NY; North Little Rock, AR; Park City, UT; Portland, OR; Rohnert Park, CA; Washougal, WA; and West Palm Beach, FL.

Most of the municipalities participating in the project are first taking stock of their own emissions from their government operations, before implementing broader policies and programs to reduce emissions citywide. This practice enables cities to lead by example before asking businesses and residents to also reduce emissions. However, many of the responding cities are also beginning to measure the impact of the wider community on the climate where there is the potential for massive emissions mitigation. For example, Denver