A collection of cities around the world are filling the leadership void in combating climate change. It is a void created by the painfully slow pace of heads of state, even after the recent "successful" Paris climate change summit. The dithering of a majority of our Congress has also contributed to the vacuum.
In a sense, it is only fitting that cities lead the way. They collectively have 3.9 billion people within their borders, more than half of the world's population. That has caused them to be responsible for 70 percent of the global greenhouse gas emissions linked to earth's rising average temperatures.
Furthermore, there should be no surprise at these cities' early activist role. Many of them are already experiencing the direct negative effects of a planet in climate flux. The effects include rising sea levels, elevated smog conditions, unprecedented flooding, protracted drought, and record-breaking heat waves.
Mayors of these jurisdictions don't have the luxury of deferring corrective action to avoid controversy and the prospect of accompanying political blowback.
Accordingly, the pace of urban climate activism has accelerated recently. At a United States-China Climate Smart Cities Summit, 23 Chinese municipalities representing 17 percent of their nation's population pledged to level off carbon emissions earlier than the 2030 national target, and have begun the process.
The Rockefeller Foundation has added 37 urban areas to its 100 Resilient Cities Program. Money is distributed to support adaptation and mitigation measures to alleviate the adverse impacts of climate change. Among the new recipients of funding are Washington, Seattle, and Atlanta. Overseas beneficiaries include Buenos Aires, Nairobi, and Tel-Aviv.
What initiatives are progressive cities implementing while their national governments equivocate? Innovative advances are occurring in mass transit, energy efficient building and appliance standards, clustered development with generous green space both inside and surrounding city limits, car-free pedestrian zones, and shifts from fossil fuels to clean
renewable energy.
Some examples. London levies a congestion charge on vehicles to reduce traffic jams in the bustling downtown portion of the city. San Francisco composts 75 percent of its waste. Addis Ababa Ethiopia has overseen low carbon emission building development. Adelaide, Australia has put into circulation the first fully solar-powered bus.
Not every progressive city turns out to be a major metropolis. Take Carmel, Indiana, some 70,000 strong. It has increased its public green space from 40 to 800 acres, reconfigured the local road network to make it more compact, added hybrid cars to the city fleet, expanded bike paths, and integrated recycling into the operation of its municipal waste water treatment plant.
National leaders need to take their cue from the multitude of forward-looking mayors and act with the same sense of urgency.