Earth Day 2023: Climate Action at the Local Level
True progress in the fight against climate change is happening at the local level — America’s mayors are working every day to invest in climate-smart solutions to build cleaner, more sustainable cities. They’re leading the way with new initiatives aimed at mitigating environmental impacts, big and small, and helping to create jobs in the process.
This week, ahead of Earth Day, we’re highlighting mayors’ efforts to better the planet, their cities, and the lives of their residents through bold climate action — and we’re kicking it off with examples in the words of mayors from across the country.
Francis Suarez, Mayor of Miami, FL, and President of the U.S. Conference of Mayors: “We don’t have the luxury of putting our head in the sand and pretending… these problems don’t exist. We were impacted tremendously by Irma in 2017 where we saw a four to six foot storm surge which inundated Brickell, our central business district, for 24 hours…Mother Nature has another level inside of her, and we have to understand that these kinds of issues not only impact our infrastructure and the decisions that we make, but they’re going to impact the lives of our children…After Hurricane Andrew in 1992, we became one of the most wind-resilient cities on the planet. Now our challenge of course is to become the most water-resilient city on the planet,” he said in remarks at the Aspen Ideas Climate event in March.
Justin Bibb, Mayor of Cleveland, OH, and Vice Chair for Climate & Resilience of USCM’s Standing Committee on the Environment, on an equitable and data-driven approach to updating climate action plans: “I am…honored to…kick off our city’s first ever Decarbonization Summit….when I ran for Mayor nearly two years ago, I realized very clearly what this topic means for our great city. For me as Mayor, this is all about how do we uplift black and brown communities so that they can achieve everything that they deserve…about making sure that we not just talk the talk but walk the walk with real plans, because Cleveland can’t wait for real change on this important issue,” he shared in remarks at the public convening for the “Decarbonizing Greater Cleveland — A Technical Design Summit” held on April 13, 2023. The Mayor’s Office of Sustainability brought together roughly 300 community members, students, government employees, business leaders, community-based organizations, higher education, subject matter experts and partners from the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network USA to learn about, review and consider regional level decarbonzation pathways as an approach for connecting and informing climate action planning goals in Greater Cleveland. Cleveland will be updating its community Climate Action Plan this year to target net zero carbon emissions by 2050, and just announced its membership in the US DOE Better Climate Challenge at the Summit.
Elizabeth Kautz, Mayor of Burnsville, MN: “As I reported in Miami at our Fall Leadership meeting, we are building a dashboard [at sustainability-burnsville.hub.arcgis.com] to capture our community’s sustainability results. I have been committed and passionate about our USCM Climate agreement when we signed it in 2005 when President Bush did not sign the Kyoto Protocol. To date, Burnsville has outpaced and far exceeded goals set by our state.”
Dan Gelber, mayor of Miami Beach, FL, and chair of USCM’s Standing Committee on the Environment: “I am the mayor of a seven-and-a-half-mile barrier island built on porous limestone sitting at sea level. We do not debate whether the waters are rising. We try to raise ourselves above the rising waters. We have raised our streets. We’re changing our water management systems. We’re changing our building codes. We’re doing all the things we think we must do, but let me tell you, what’s most important, we want to get this right like so many cities in the world. We can’t afford to get it wrong,” he said in remarks at the Aspen Ideas Climate event in March.
LaToya Cantrell, Mayor of New Orleans, LA, and Co-Chair of the USCM Task Force on Infrastructure Law Implementation: “Climate change is a lived reality for many, and for those of us in coastal communities, we are already feeling the detrimental effects of extreme weather events exacerbated by climate change on a regular basis. It is imperative for me as both a leader and a mother to work toward creating a resilient environment for our community and for future generations to come,” she wrote last fall in the The Times-Picayune/New Orleans Advocate.
Vi Lyles, Mayor of Charlotte, NC: “The path ahead is clear. We will invest in clean energy and resilient solutions that have been proven in our communities and businesses. We will put those solutions to work… Ensuring a low carbon and equitable future for our residents is our top priority. This year, we launched our first-ever battery-electric buses in our transit system, thanks to the help from a federal transit administration grant. Zero-emission transportation ensures our residents can breathe cleaner air… But we must keep going. We can’t leave opportunities on the table and America exposed to economic and climate risks,” she said last spring.
Follow USCM’s Medium and social media accounts this week for more stories showcasing local climate action.
