"Local Climate Actions" and "Don't Know What to Believe"

Hello Readers,

In an excellent follow up to my post to about car free cities, the Yale Forum on Climate Change recently posted an article on the impact of local actions to mitigate climate change. The article profiles the struggles of Fort Collins, Colorado as the city tries to lower their greenhouse gas emissions. It also gives a thorough list of useful websites for those interested in city-based climate initiatives and organizations, which I will repost at the bottom of this article. Although, I recommend you read the full article.

In the meantime, I wanted to share a brief anecdote. Today, at a dentist appointment I struck up a conversation with one of the ladies working there. After I told her that I had just returned from studying climate change science, she explained that she "just wasn't convinced". I decided to persist a little to try to find out why. She explained that it was just hard to tell who to believe and questioned the motivation of the scientists. After I told her about my experience at UEA during the email-hacking scandal and the subsequent investigations, she was surprised to find out what the conclusions were about the independent investigations. It turned out she had only vaguely heard about scandals in climate change science, and she did what everybody does about news stories that are interesting but not integral to their lives: she caught the headlines from several directions but missed the follow-up stories.

I found this encounter particularly instructive. As a proponent of sustainability and climate change action, I learned it is not a good idea to rely on public follow up. It is necessary to confirm that others have heard about the news you have before trying to have a conversation about disagreements.

Until next time...
Sean Diamond

List of Links from Yale Forum on Climate Change

World Urbanization Prospects:
The 2009 Revision
ICLEI — Local Governments for Sustainability
ICLEI is an international association of local governments and their associations that have made a commitment to sustainable development
*   ICLEI USA
United States Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Center
The U.S. Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Agreement commits cities to reduce emissions to seven percent below 1990 levels by 2012. At least 1,044 mayors have joined to reduce carbon emissions in their cities in line with the Kyoto Protocol.
*   The U.S. Conference of Mayors’ Climate Protection Agreement
Global Carbon Project’s Urban and Regional Carbon Management Initiative
URCM was launched in 2005 as a place-based and policy-relevant scientific initiative aimed to support carbon management and sustainable urban development.
*   City Action Plans
*   Urban Regional Carbon Management: Publications
OECD: Cities and CC
C40 is a group of large cities committed to tackling climate change.
*   Current C40 initiatives about each of the cities involved.

Metropolis: World Association of the Major Metropolises
Created in 1985, the Metropolis Association is represented by more than 100 members from around the world and operates as an international forum for exploring issues and concerns common to all big cities and metropolitan regions. Metropolis also manages the Metropolitan Section of United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG).
Connected Urban Development
Connected Urban Development (CUD) demonstrates how to reduce carbon emissions by introducing fundamental improvements in the efficiency of urban infrastructure through information and communications technology (ICT). CUD was born from Cisco’s commitment to the Clinton Global Initiative to participate in helping reduce carbon emissions. The founding CUD cities are: San Francisco, Amsterdam, and Seoul. In 2008 four new cities joined the program — Birmingham, Hamburg, Lisbon, and Madrid — beginning a new phase for CUD and opening new avenues for collaboration in promoting smart urban environments globally.
Sustainable Cities Institute
The Sustainable Cities Institute (SCI), built by The Home Depot Foundation, is working with cities across the country as a resource to assist in planning and implementing local sustainable strategies through the use of its vetted best practices, communication tools and an innovative city program.
Research and Information
Global Cities Indicator
The Global City Indicators Program provides an established set of city indicators with a globally standardized methodology that allows for global comparability of city performance and knowledge sharing. This website serves all cities that become members to measure and report on a core set of indicators through this web-based relational database.
United Nations University: International Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change
HDP’s activities focus on three principal areas: developing and sustaining cutting-edge research; developing world-wide capacity to understand and deal with these challenges; and promoting interaction between scientists and policymakers on these topics. Cutting-edge science pushes the research agenda and urgency of action towards global environmental change forward, by continually identifying and addressing contemporary topics through its network of scientific projects.
Tyndall Center: Cities and Coasts
Our programme on building resilience and decreasing the vulnerability of people and places, with particular reference to cities and coasts, aims to bring greater integration to our work on coastal communities, cities and adaptation. Given the widespread consequences of climate change on ecosystems throughout society, adaptation represents a major challenge to future sustainability.
UN-Habitat: Climate Change and Cities
The United Nations Human Settlements Programme, UN-HABITAT, is the United Nations agency for human settlements. It is mandated by the UN General Assembly to promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities with the goal of providing adequate shelter for all.
*   UN-HABITAT Climate Change Strategy 2010-2013