Mayors Climate Protection Agreement
The Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, initiated in 2005 by Seattle's Mayor Greg Nickels, represents a collective commitment by U.S. cities to address climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In response to perceived federal inaction on climate issues, over 1,000 mayors across the country pledged to lower emissions below 1990 levels, signaling a grassroots movement towards environmental sustainability. By mid-2008, around 850 cities joined the initiative, which has evolved to encompass various local programs aimed at enhancing air quality and urban livability.
The agreement has facilitated significant municipal efforts, such as Los Angeles' GREEN L.A. action plan and Chicago's Climate Action Plan, which focus on increasing renewable energy usage and improving building energy efficiency. Cities like Portland and Dallas have also implemented ambitious targets for reducing their carbon footprints through innovative strategies, including tree-planting programs and energy-efficient upgrades. The agreement's ongoing activities underscore the belief that local action can significantly contribute to the broader fight against climate change, while also advocating for stronger federal support to achieve long-term sustainability goals.
Mayors Climate Protection Agreement
DATE: Established 2005
Mission
Greg Nickels, Seattle’s mayor, launched the U.S. Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Agreement in 2005, after a season of unusually mild winter weather ruined the Pacific Northwest’s skiing season. By mid-2008, 850 U.S. cities from Boston to Portland, Oregon, representing a total population of more than 85 million, had pledged to meet standards. Many municipal leaders took action, because they believed the federal government during the administration of George W. Bush had failed to do so. By the time of the Obama administration, 1,066 mayors had joined the Agreement, vowing to reduce carbon emissions in their cities below 1990 levels. Although the Kyoto Protocol was replaced by the Paris Climate Agreement in 2016, the work of the U.S. Conference of Mayors in the fight against climate change continued, with the group hosting a panel at the 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in November 2022.
At the Seattle Climate Protection Summit of November 2007, more than one hundred U.S. mayors called for a federal partnership to address energy dependence and global warming. Nickels said,
We are showing what is possible in light of climate change at the local level, but to reach our goal of 80 percent reductions in greenhouse gases by 2050, we need strong support from the federal government.
The call for federal action occurred alongside the commitments of a large number of U.S. cities to reduce their residents’ greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
The Mayor's Climate Protection Center organizes and coordinates efforts to combat global warming in U.S. towns and cities, coordinates action on a national level, and encourages efforts undertaken by individual urban areas. There is no limit on the size of a municipal district that may take part. The organization also works with cities and towns to improve air quality and enhance urban livability, coordinating with groups that have similar missions around the world. Under the leadership of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) Program was realized, providing grants to fund energy-efficiency projects. This grant was still active in 2023.
Significance for Climate Change
The street-level impact of the climate protection programs initiated by the U.S. Conference of Mayors Climate Agreement can be measured by programs in several affiliated urban areas. For example, in Los Angeles, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, in office from 2005 to 2013, in partnership with the Los Angeles City Council and environmental leaders, unveiled GREEN L.A., described as “an action plan to lead the nation in fighting global warming.” Villaraigosa pledged to reduce his city’s to 65 percent of its 1990 level by 2035, the most ambitious goal set by a major American city. Los Angeles also planned to increase its use of renewable energy to 35 percent of total energy usage by 2020, much of it through changes to its municipal electrical utility, the largest in the country.
In Austin, Texas, standards were raised for homes, requiring a 60 percent reduction in energy use by 2015. Chicago has attempted waterless urinals and planted several thousand trees. Philadelphia replaced black tarpaper roofs atop old row houses with snow-white, highly reflective composites. Keene, New Hampshire, required parents waiting to pick up their children at schools to turn off their car engines. In Portland, Oregon, carbon emissions were reduced to 1990 levels by 2007. Water flowing through Portland’s drinking-water system also began to generatehydroelectricity. Mayors of at least 134 U.S. cities by 2007 were using more energy efficient lighting in public buildings, streetlights, parks, traffic signals, and other places. Many city governments’ auto fleets converted to alternative fuels or hybrid-electric technology.
The Chicago Climate Action Plan, announced in September, 2008, aimed to cut GHG emissions to 25 percent below 1990 levels by 2020. The plan required retrofitting of commercial and industrial buildings, increased energy efficiency in residences, and more use of renewable sources of electricity to reduce Chicago’s emissions to 80 percent of 1990 levels by 2050. Buildings, which emit 70 percent of Chicago’s carbon dioxide, are the major target of the Climate Action Plan. Chicago City Hall already has a green roof, designed as a model for as many as six thousand buildings citywide. Chicago’s Smart Bulb Program by 2007 had distributed 500,000 free compact fluorescent light bulbs to residents. In 2022, Chicago's Climate Action Plan continued to work toward creating resilient and sustainable communities across the city.
The Dallas, Texas, municipal government decided early in 2008 to purchase 40 percent of its power from renewable energy sources, primarily wind power, which has been expanding rapidly in Texas. The city government also was reducing its energy use 5 percent per year by using lighting upgrades, solar panels, highly efficient heating and air-conditioning systems, and automated building temperature controls. In 2015, Dallas purchased 50 percent of its power from renewable energy sources.
Using the AlbuquerqueGreen program, that city reduced natural-gas consumption 42 percent and cut GHG emissions 67 percent between 2000 and 2006. AlbuquerqueGreen promoted growth of green-tech companies, bicycle use, and pedestrian-friendly streets. Albuquerque requires that all new buildings be designed to be carbon neutral, with architecture suitable for 100 percent renewable energy use by 2030.
Several cities targeted poor neighborhoods with subsidies and grants for insulation of older homes that often leak heat in winter. Such programs allowed some people to acquire insulation and energy-efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs as they replace older, inefficient basic electrical appliances, such as refrigerators, washers, and dryers.
With encouragement from the U.S. Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Agreement and Programs, several major U.S. cities have launched sizable tree-planting programs, including Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Minneapolis, Chicago, Denver, and Los Angeles. Even so, an ongoing decline in urban tree cover has been accelerating since the 1970s in the United States, especially on private property and new development, according to American Forests, an environmental group that uses satellite imagery to document tree cover across the United States. Washington, D.C., is among the cities with the largest reduction in dense tree cover, with a 64 percent decline from 1973 to 1997, according to American Forests.
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