While some U.S. cities are expanding their clean energy efforts to tackle climate change, many still lag far behind, with only 20% having community-wide greenhouse gas reduction goals and being on track to meet them, according to the 2020 City Clean Energy Scorecard.
The scorecard from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) analyzes the efforts of 100 major U.S. cities—home to 19% of the nation’s population—to make buildings and transportation more energy efficient and scale up the use of renewable energy. It provides the most comprehensive national measuring stick for climate progress and a roadmap for future improvements.
New York City leaped to first place in the ranking – spurred in part by a new law ensuring upgrades to many inefficient buildings – followed by Boston and Seattle (tied for second place) and Minneapolis and San Francisco (tied for fourth place).
The report, which was expanded from 75 cities last year, found that 20 cities are now on track to meet their own community-wide greenhouse gas emission reduction goals – nine more than a year ago. Unfortunately, the remainder of cities analyzed haven’t provided adequate data nor have they set goals.
“Many cities are really seizing the moment and embracing policies that help them fight climate change, while too many others are, frankly, doing very little,” said David Ribeiro, director of ACEEE’s local policy program and the lead report author. “We want to show all the cities, even the leaders, the further steps they can take to cut carbon emissions most effectively and equitably.”
Rounding on the top 10 highest-ranked cities: Washington, D.C.; Denver; Los Angeles; San José; and Oakland. San Jose and Oakland entered the top 10 for the first time.
According to the scorecard, the top 10 cities embraced new actions. For example, Boston and Los Angeles updated codes to require new buildings be pre-wired for electric vehicle charging stations at more parking spaces. San Francisco, meanwhile, convened a network to work with marginalized communities to establish equitable zero-emissions residential building strategies.
St. Paul (#16) was the most-improved city. It took key steps to improve efficiency of existing buildings, reduce total vehicle miles traveled, and embrace renewable energy. The second-most-improved city was St. Louis (#28). Earlier this year, Missouri’s largest city became the third in the country to require large existing buildings to meet a performance standard, which will drive energy efficiency upgrades.
When it comes to building policies, New York, Seattle, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. were the highest scoring cities. “These six show their commitment to reducing building energy use through a combination of stringent energy codes, code compliance, benchmarking ordinances, and other policies requiring clean energy improvements in existing buildings,” the report stated.
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