Cities and climate change: Strategic options for philanthropic support
Date
2019-03-12
DOI
Authors
Hatch, Jennifer
Cleveland, John
Silano, Michael
Fox-Penner, Peter
Version
OA Version
Citation
Abstract
Now, more than ever, cities are at the front lines of U.S. climate action. As national action stalls,
there is still a daunting amount to be done in reducing human-generated climate emissions.
Fortunately, this report comes in the wake of a groundswell of initiatives to engage on climate
change by cities, countries, and states across the U.S. Several important and thorough reports
on the types of mitigation actions cities can take have recently been released. We already have
examples of cities taking significant leadership roles in reducing their own climate emissions,
from New York and Boston to Austin, Boulder, and Los Angeles - yet U.S. climate emissions
continue to rise, and cities have an outsized role to play.
The purpose of this project is to review current U.S. city climate activities in order to identify
areas where additional investment by foundations could help accelerate city action to reduce
urban greenhouse gas emissions. The focus of the inquiry is on aggressive actions cities can take
that significantly increase their “level of ambition” to achieve emissions reductions on an
accelerated timetable. City strategies on climate adaptation are not encompassed in this
project. [TRUNCATED]