The Fight Against Climate Change is Grounded in Local Action
Climate change isn’t some far off threat — in America’s cities, mayors are fighting the effects of climate change every day. Across the country, our communities are grappling with more frequent and more extreme weather events, droughts, rising sea levels and damage to our critical infrastructure. The economic toll has been devastating, and the human toll, heartbreaking.
That’s why, for decades, mayors have been leading the way on energy and climate action. Our world faces an unprecedented challenge, and mayors recognize that our cities’ response must be equally unprecedented in size and scope.
I’m proud to say that mayors are stepping up to meet the moment. Take Houston, Texas Mayor Sylvester Turner, for example, who transformed a former landfill into one of the largest urban solar farms in the country through the Sunnyside Landfill Solar Project. Tens of thousands of solar panels will soon produce enough energy to power 5,000 homes. That means cleaner energy for the city — and it means lower power bills for Sunnyside families.
Or take Beverly, Massachusetts Mayor Michael Cahill, whose city has been purchasing electric school buses and hopes to electrify its entire school fleet by 2030. Beverly’s Green Schools program has also begun construction on a new energy-efficient middle school that draws energy from solar panels and leverages upgraded heating, cooling, and ventilation systems.
The President of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, Miami Mayor Francis X. Suarez, has made it a priority for Miami to become carbon-neutral by 2050. To do so, the city is working to retrofit existing buildings, build new ultra-low energy buildings, reduce fuel consumption, and expand renewable energy sources. In the near term, the city has been using drones to map areas prone to flooding so that they know where to plug holes in their subsoil, and they’re installing pump stations to remove water from the city and back into the ocean.
All of these initiatives are helping secure our future while creating more jobs, saving taxpayer dollars, and creating healthier, more resilient communities.
However, mayors cannot address climate change alone — collaboration with the private sector will be critical to our success. Thankfully, we’ve seen an increasing number of business leaders come to recognize that climate action is needed to keep our cities safe and our local economies strong. Earlier this year, the U.S. Conference of Mayors announced a years-long partnership with Wells Fargo that will help identify barriers to climate action and bring together public, private, and nonprofit leaders to share climate change mitigation strategies.
Mayors also recognize that we cannot meet this challenge without the support of our federal government. That’s why mayors have been proud to work with the Biden Administration and Congress to ensure the full weight of our federal government is put toward reducing our carbon footprint and investing in energy-efficient technologies. The U.S. Conference of Mayors and our members are grateful for their support.
Over the next few weeks leading up to Earth Day, the United States Conference of Mayors will be highlighting the creative solutions that mayors have put forward to address climate change. Whether it’s a project in Columbus, Ohio, Mesa, Arizona, or Sacramento, California, I think you’ll see that there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to achieving our climate goals.
I hope you will continue to check our Twitter handle to learn about the creative ways local leaders are solving one of our most pressing challenges. Change truly happens at the local level, and America’s mayors are working every day to create a safer, cleaner, more sustainable future for us all.
Tom Cochran is CEO and Executive Director of the U.S. Conference of Mayors
