Changing a City: Inside Portland’s 80 Percent by 2050 Target

by Alex Aylett

Last week the City of Portland and Multnomah County jointly passed one of North America’s most ambitious Climate Change Action Plan (CAP), which commits the city and county to reducing their overall emissions by 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.

Portland has been a leading city on climate change policy since 1993, when it became the first city adopt a strategy to reduce carbon emissions. It is also the only North American city that has managed to reduce its emissions below 1990 levels (despite an 18 percent growth in population). Nonetheless, the plan opens with the sobering point that “perhaps the most important lesson learned from local climate protection work to date is the frank recognition that our good work…is not nearly enough.” (A familiar mia culpa, well in line with how serious things have gotten.) What follows in the rest of the 70 page plan (pdf) is an example of what it might look like if cities truly take sustainability seriously. The plan is packed with useful information and strategy. You can find more complete review here. Read the full story >>http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/010712.html