Center for Neighborhood Technology has been conducting research and developing and testing innovative programs to use urban resources more efficiently for almost 30 years. These efforts inevitably relate to the growing concerns about reducing greenhouse gas emissions and slowing global warming.
CNT’s research has shown that cities can be the most efficient places to live, with their lower per capita greenhouse gas emissions due to efficient land use and transportation alternatives. Because urban areas are compact and have extensive mass transit and communication networks, they offer the greatest opportunities to help solve the climate crisis by expanding and enhancing their existing strategies for reducing carbon emissions.
Learn more about our research and steps you can take to help improve the environment by checking out our current projects at right.
Friday, March 5th, 2010 at 3:41 pm
"Chicago’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions 2000", copyright CNT, 2010.
When CNT set out to inventory Chicago’s greenhouse gas emissions, our goal was to give the Mayor’s Task Force on Climate Change the information it needed to better understand where Chicago’s emissions come from and to establish a baseline for comparison in future years. In addition to that, we created a portfolio of emissions reductions measures to better understand the scale and scope of actions that needed to be taken to meet the city’s emissions reduction targets.
Beyond the City-commissioned research, our broader goal is to make our climate change analysis transparent and available for cities around the world to take action on reducing their impact on climate change. Soon this research will be available in the Journal of Great Lakes Research and it is our belief that the valuable information in this peer-reviewed, scientific journal can serve as a useful tool for cities to use a model.
The forthcoming article, “Greenhouse gas emissions in Chicago: Emissions inventories and reduction strategies for Chicago and its metropolitan region”, summarizes the research methods and results CNT used to develop Chicago’s greenhouse gas inventory for the Chicago Climate Action Plan. The paper also describes the portfolio of mitigation strategies CNT investigated for reducing Chicago’s greenhouse gas emissions and meeting its target of emissions 25% below 1990 levels by 2020.
Our analysis of climate change mitigation strategies was designed to address two key questions for Chicago:
- What are the most promising strategies for substantially reducing Chicago’s greenhouse gas emissions?
- What scale of deployment of these strategies is necessary to achieve the goal of 25% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions between 1990 and 2020?
CNT answered these questions by researching and developing a portfolio of 33 emissions reduction strategies tailored to Chicago. The Chicago Climate Task Force used this portfolio to select the final mitigation strategies and implementation scale for the Chicago Climate Action Plan.
With the subsequent publication of the Chicago Climate Action Plan and the ongoing efforts of the City of Chicago and many others to implement real-world emissions reductions, the details of the projects and programs has changed to adapt to the realities of program execution. Moreover, the exact greenhouse gas reduction impact of any program will depend on hundreds of small details—from participation rates to weather.
Accordingly, CNT encourages cities to use this research into the potential greenhouse gas reduction benefits of programs as a guide to compare programs and a reference as to the scale of impact, but our research findings are not the same as measured results from a specific program.
As useful as it is to estimate potential program impacts in the planning phase, nothing compares to strong program evaluation that tracks real-world results on the ground. In the end, an inventory of all emissions generated by a community will be the real measure of whether a city is meeting its emissions reduction goal. CNT looks forward to continuing to assist cities as they take climate action to help them achieve real emissions reductions that create benefits for the residents and businesses in their communities.
CNT’s version of McGraw, J., et al., “Greenhouse gas emissions in Chicago: Emissions inventories and reduction strategies for Chicago and its metropolitan region”, J Great Lakes Res (2009), doi:10.1016/j.jglr.2009.11.010, is available from our website here or by purchasing the published copy from the Journal of Great Lakes here.
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Wednesday, November 25th, 2009 at 3:45 pm
Despite recent announcements from the Senate leadership that climate change legislation will be put off until spring of 2010 and questions about the fate of the international climate negotiations in Copenhagen, CNT is not discouraged about the future of climate action in the U.S. Yes, it is frustrating that Senate action may not occur until a year after the House passed the American Clean Energy and Security Act in June 2009, and that the Copenhagen talks may result in just an agreement to create a future agreement—rather than binding targets. But global warming is a problem we have created over many years and we are not going to solve it overnight.
CNT has been directly working on climate change issues for a decade and a half and indirectly working to address the problems that impact climate for our entire 31-year history as an organization. Despite recent setbacks, climate action is more on track today that it has been at any time since the Kyoto Protocol was signed (and maybe even before then, since the U.S. never ratified Kyoto).
Why such climate optimism despite the doom and gloom in the news? Many positive advancements are occurring that are not necessarily making the headlines. These examples are paving the way to not only a more definitive climate policy but to a broader awareness to the behavior changes we must take to reduce our greenhouse gas impact.
EPA Reporting Rule
The U.S. EPA issued a regulation in October that requires facilities that emit 25,000 tons carbon dioxide equivalent or more per year to report their 2010 emissions by April 2011. They expect that this will result in 10,000 reporting facilities covering 85 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. Reporting emissions isn’t the same thing as reducing them, but mandatory reporting helps us better understand where our emissions are coming from, laying the groundwork for future emissions reductions.
CNT submitted comments during the drafting process for this rule that would make it even more rigorous. We have called for this kind of required reporting for quite some time, and are pleased to see it take shape. Moreover, the EPA’s ability to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act is seen as a backstop to allow climate action even if the congress does not pass a bill. EPA has not taken that step yet—this rule is just for reporting, not for capping emissions, but that option is still on the table.
Energy Efficiency Block Grant
The vast majority of our greenhouse gas emissions result from our use of fossil fuels, so improving our efficiency not only saves us money, conserves resources, but it will cut our emissions significantly. Therefore it is great news that funds are now being issued to cities under Energy Efficiency Block Grant as part of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
Over 40 municipalities in Illinois have been awarded funding under this program to-date. Each participating government authority must develop an Energy Efficiency and Conservation Strategy and CNT is helping communities in the Chicago region through our Municipal Energy Profile Program which is providing data on energy use and emissions for 283 municipalities in the region.
Executive Order
In October, the White House issued an Executive Order requiring all federal agencies to begin to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. There is a long history of environmental action through executive order, and as the federal government is a major purchaser of goods and services, the changes made have the potential to ripple through the economy. Executive Orders were one of the key strategies CNT analyzed in our work to help develop the Presidential Climate Action Plan.
The “Federal Leadership in Environmental, Energy, and Economic Performance” Executive Order will require each federal agency to appoint a Senior Sustainability Officer, calculate the greenhouse gas emissions inventory of the agency, set reduction targets for both direct and indirect emissions, and report annually on progress. The Executive Order addresses sustainability of federal operations broadly, including location efficiency, fleets, waste reduction, green buildings, energy efficient procurement, stormwater, and electronics disposal.
California Assembly Bill 32: Global Warming Solutions Act
As part of its broad sweeping climate change laws, California is leading the way in figuring out the nuts and bolts of creating greenhouse gas reductions. For example, its mandatory greenhouse gas reporting scheme recently released the emissions reports of over 500 facilities in the state, creating a brand new knowledge base for targeting emission reduction actions.
These are just a handful of the many activities that are taking place today that would need to happen under a cap and trade bill anyway. So while CNT supports strong legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, there is no time to waste in reducing the harm we are doing to our climate and CNT will continue to work on solutions reduce emissions today and into the future.
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Thursday, September 24th, 2009 at 11:13 am
“Cities can really benefit from each other’s experience taking action on climate change,” states Julia Parzen, author of a new publication, “Lessons Learned: Creating the Chicago Climate Action Plan.”
This report, which documents the Plan’s process up until its public release on September 19, 2008, summarizes key lessons learned and provides a timeline and observations about each step. The City of Chicago benefited from the work of other cities as it created the Chicago Climate Action Plan. Because of funding from the Clinton Climate Initiative, Chicago was able to document the three phases—research, planning, and implementation—of the Chicago Climate Action Plan process. The report is being co-released by the Global Philanthropy Partnership, the City of Chicago, and ICLEI.
As the City of Chicago reflects on the first year of the plan’s implementation, Julia believes that “Chicago has benefited from its action plan and has valuable lessons to share, data that is applicable to many other cities, and tools for prioritizing strategies that I hope other cities can adapt.”
The Chicago Climate Action Plan outlines five strategies, which are broken into 26 actions for mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and nine actions to prepare for climate change. CNT was the lead researcher for the mitigation strategies for the Plan. Learn more about CNT’s research.
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