Weekly Assignment #13

Local Governments Set Targets to Battle Climate Change

The City of Portland and Multnomah County are working together on an ambitious goal to reduce greenhouse gas emission. Jointly, the City and County are developing a climate action plan to be implemented in late June 2009. Through this plan, they are aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 90% per person by 2050. This percentage goal was derived from scientific evidence that the world would need to reduce carbon emissions 50-80% below 1990 levels in order to prevent a global disaster. This is an example of local government planning for sustainability.

The sustainability plan being drafted included: reducing the number of miles people drive a day, a drop in electricity use, and an increase in trips by bicycle. The City and County have set goals for 2012 and expect the plan to be fluid, making updates regularly. The 2012 goals include: installing residential solar electric systems, plant yard and street trees, create community garden plots, limit regional urban growth, and add rooftop gardens. The City of Portland has had progress in the past on lowering emissions without federal subsidies. With the Obama Administration’s commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, they are hoping that local progress should be easier.

It is great that the City of Portland and Multnomah County are developing an aggressive and ambitious tactic to address the problem of greenhouse gas emissions. However, I view this issue as being national or even global. If the scientific reports are correct and the world needs to take dramatic measures to sustain our environment, the steps taken by the City and County – while admirable – would not matter in the long run if the nation does not begin to address this issue nationally and globally. In the past, our government has not taken a great stance on improving the environment or working with other countries. I would agree, that with the new administration, we should see progress come from our national leaders and the US should become more active in global discussions.

The City of Portland and Multnomah County are ahead of most of the rest of the country. They are being proactive and taking environmental matters into their own control at the local level. I believe that if policy-makers had tried to implement the issue at the federal level, it would provide more funding and support at the local level. Additionally, if the climate action plan were implemented nationally, I’m positive that the US would see lower levels of greenhouse gas emissions. The draw backs I could foresee with enacting at the federal level, is the loss of autonomy and restrictions that the policy could impose on the state and local governments.