City of Chicago Announces Comprehensive Climate Action Plan

Thursday, September 18, 2008

A Climate Action Plan unveiled today by the City of Chicago calls for the city to slash emissions of global warming gases by the year 2020.

The plan–which was developed by a Task Force convened by Mayor Richard M. Daley in 2007–was announced at a news conference at the Shedd Aquarium along with leaders from the business and the not-for-profit sectors, state and local government officials and residents.

ELPC President and Executive Director Howard Learner served on the task force and joined Mayor Daley and the city’s chief environmental officer, Sadhu Johnston, in announcing the plan.

The Mayor stressed that the effort will require an enormous amount of hard work and cooperation and the commitment of not only government but also every individual, business and institution in the city.

“This is an ambitious plan that contains many important ideas that will ensure Chicago continues to distinguish itself as an environmental role model for the rest of the nation,” Daley said.

Under the plan, the City will work to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 25 percent below 1990 levels (1990 levels are the recommended baseline according to the Kyoto Protocol).

Other cities have set similar goals, but Chicago’s plan is the first to both identify emission sources and anticipated impacts, and propose ideas that specifically respond to that research.

The Chicago Climate Action Plan outlines a roadmap of 29 actions that might be taken for mitigating greenhouse gas in four areas: buildings; transportation; energy; and waste pollution. Experts identified these sources are being responsible for the vast majority of greenhouse gas emissions in Chicago. The Plan also identifies nine actions that could help the city adapt to the changes already occurring.

Mayor Daley indicated several ideas included in the plan will be acted upon right away, including:

A “Green Office Challenge” that will spur high rise office buildings to save energy, increase recycling and water efficiency and reduce paper.
An updated Chicago Energy Efficiency Building Code, which will bring our current code up to international standards and be easier to understand.
And innovative ways to help property owners save money by making their buildings more energy efficient.

Because the Chicago Climate Action Plan takes a long-term approach, it will be evaluated over time to determine where these actions should be modified or revised. This flexible approach allows for the accommodation of new technologies, new laws and new opportunities as they evolve.

The city unveiled a new Climate Action Plan website to support the initiative, including an $800 Savings Challenge calculator that lets consumers estimate global warming gas emission reductions–and dollar savings–from a variety of action steps they can take.