U.S. Mayor's Climate Protection Agreement

So I don't know if I've really rambled about this much, but one of the things I care about is climate change. For a variety of reasons, our federal government is not particularly responsive to the climate change issue. So it's been left up to cities to do what they can to fix this problem.

This is a problem I've been thinking about lately. I'm considering going into some kind of local planning or development work once life at SPEA is over. Cities seem like they have a lot of potential to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transportation and energy use. So, even though I would still prefer to try and establish a national response to climate change, I see the writing on the wall, and it says the federal government ain't gonna do much for this problem any time soon, so maybe the best way for me to make a difference would be to work at the city level where a difference really seems like it could be made.

The Mayor's Climate Protection Agreement is a group of mayors that signed an agreement to meet or beat the United States' commitment agreed to in the Kyoto Protocol (which we never ratified) to reduce our GHG emissions by 7% by 2012. Since its start in 2005, over one thousand mayors in charge of cities big and small have signed onto the agreement. (See the map below to view the cities signing on to the Agreement.) Here you can find some "best practices" from exemplary cities, ranging from a comprehensive mass transit program in Denver, to a program linking high school students with "green" professionals in Chapel Hill, N.C., to a walkable community initiative in Carmel, IN.

This week's reading emphasizes the role of local governments in creating sustainable communities. This seems pretty axiomatic: "local government" and "community" are practically synonymous. But there are plenty of communities out there that are not following environmentally friendly practices. The Mayor's Agreement is a great example of how local governments can be leaders on climate change.

Still, I think more will need to be done to truly tackle climate change. Ideally this will include a national initiative. Is it possible that the cities that have signed the Mayor's Climate Agreement could give the federal government that extra oomph needed to push it to take action? Is it possible some of these cities could coordinate their efforts, thereby creating networks of people working together and going beyond their localities? It could happen. States and localities are often seen as "policy workshops" where initiatives have their kinks worked out before being deployed nationally. Indeed, at that state level, governments are beginning to band together to address climate change, through such mechanisms as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Inititative's carbon trading scheme. In the absence of a national program, it's good to see local and state officials taking the lead to address one of the most pressing problems of our time.