Changing the Direction of Climate Change Battle: Start from the Bottom Up
While international summits and organizations seek to rally support for a global plan to combat climate change and federal governments struggle to enact policies to reduce their nations’ carbon footprints, something interesting is happening in cities and states across the world: they’re taking their own steps to go green, going above and beyond mandates imposed from above.
Take California, which just enacted a stringent climate change bill that mandates the state obtain at least half of its energy from renewable sources by 2030 and that homes and other buildings double their energy efficiency in the same timeframe.
Take the coalition of 60 mayors from cities around the globe, who met at the Vatican earlier this year to discuss climate change and human trafficking, and how these communities can take steps to combat both. In the states, cities such as New York and San Francisco are switching to vehicles powered by renewable energy, banning plastic bags, and looking for ways to build their cities into bastions of innovation and energy efficiency, all with the goal of helping them thrive. And Seattle recently issued nearly $1 billion in green bonds dedicated to expanding public transit.
This is important, because more than half the world’s populations live in cities. In addition, cities account for some 70 percent of carbon emissions. They’re also more likely to feel the effects of climate change, since cities tend to be located along bodies of water — rivers or coastal plains, in particular. As a result, cities are likely to experience extreme weather and flooding, both of which are expected to increase as the effects of unmitigated climate change take hold. While experts still debate whether Katrina was directly caused by climate change, the fact is that the U.S. is likely to see these devastating events more and more often.
While some people clamor for a top-down approach to fighting climate change, the world’s powers have been slow to make agreements and enact strong policies, mostly because of the politicking involved. Cities and states have more power to act quickly and govern themselves.
In the case of cities, making the effort to go green translates to economic benefits: more people want to live and work in those cities, businesses are drawn there, and people generally live healthier lives. The New Climate Economy found in a report that by going green, cities could cut 25% of global carbon emissions. (Collectively, the world generates about 32 gigatons of carbon; cities could eliminate 8 gigatons of that.)
Fighting climate change can’t and shouldn’t be a result of just high-level policy and government action. Going green is very much a grassroots movement, one that should start at the lowest levels: with people. It’s about choosing to make lifestyle changes that benefit everyone on the planet and help you live better, like recycling and reducing your carbon footprint (and even finding ways to offset it). It’s about rethinking the old ways and looking for new solutions to problems, from how we build public transportation networks to how we invest our money. When people demand these changes, whole communities can join the movement more easily, the ideas spread — and fighting climate change will become less of an uphill battle.
