EU Mayors Pledge to Cut CO2 20% by 2020 - A Step Towards Carbon Neutrality?

While European countries have typically been perceived as more environmentally progressive and more in favor of climate change legislation, the recent breakdown of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen left much to be desired in political commitments to emissions reduction.

In a move that mirrors the earlier pledges of Seattle, Vancouver, Sweden and Denmark to become carbon neutral, the Covenant of Mayors (Europe's corollary to the American Mayors Climate Protection Center) has pledged to reduce overall carbon emissions 20% by 2020. Such a reduction in ten years is substantial, not least because the Covenant of Mayors represents over 500 European cities and over 120 million people in 36 countries, according to the Edie Legal Resource Center. One disticntion of the Covenant of Mayors is that rather than acting against official policy of the federal government, as the Mayors CPC was forced to do during the Bush Administration, the Covenenta of Mayors its itself an initiative of the European Commission and as such has the full range of EU expertise and funding at its disposal.

Like the United States, the EU has reconized the disproportionate role of cities in contributing to climate change. As over 80% of all energy is consumed in cities, this is where any efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions much start. Hopefully, this renewed committment by the EU to reduce carbon emissions will help spur greater investment in the green fleet technologies to create a large number of green jobs.

Via: Worldchanging

Fighting Global Warming through Improved Urban Design

Here's an interesting analysis of carbon neutrality and some of the choices we need to make to achieve it from the Sightline Institute.

Focusing on fleets and personal transportation is very important because these sectors comprise 27% of the US total emissions. However, in order to truly reduce fuel emissions from the transportation sector, we need to create green, alternative ways of getting around to truly give people the sustainable choice to reduce their emissions. Doing so requires a holistic approach to emissions reduction.

A substantial part of reducing the emissions generated by transportation lies in creating dense, walkable communities linked by public transit. 

Higher fuel efficiencies for our vehicles, while a great start, are not enough. According to a recent report from UC Berkeley, even a vehicle that gets 55 miles per gallon (like the Toyota Prius and many hybrid-electric models currently on the market) still consumes 30% of our available annual energy budget. Consuming 100% of this budget, as driving an average of 6,000 miles annually with a vehicle earning 12 m.p.g., would mean that we have already taken up the level of carbon emissions considered "sustainable". Any emissions beyond this point, such as those involved in any other process of everyday life, would directly contribute to global warming.

Studies have indicated that denser, walkable communities are as effective at reducing greenhouse gas emissions as raising the fuel efficiency of our cars. Indeed, some development experts already believe that a majority of Americans would choose such communities if they were available.

For a detailed list of systemic changes to urban design and planning to reduce our emissions, please check out the analysis from WorldChaging here and here.

Obama Administration Announces Improved Federal CAFE Standards

Although Evergreen Fleets may be the nation's first Green Fleets certification program, it soon may have a large number of competitors, thanks to a groundbreaking new policy of the Obama Administration. 


The CAFE - Corporate Average Fuel Economy - standards that govern the fuel economy of the American auto industry have been significantly strengthened in a new federal policy. In a surprisingly progressive move given America's history of resistance to environmental regulation, the new CAFE standards explicitly link a reduction in total greenhouse gas emissions to improved fuel efficiency in our national fleet, the first time the CAFE standards have made such a connection in their history.


According to WorldChanging, a Seattle media non-profit, "covering vehicle model years 2012 to 2016, the legislation will require car makers to achieve an average fuel economy for their fleets of 35.5mpg in 2016 (with 39mpg specified for cars and 30mpg for light trucks). It will replace the current CAFE standard of 27.5mpg for cars and 24mpg for light trucks." 

The standards are very similar to a California proposal that, until a May 19, 2009 EPA waiver granted by Obama, had been declared unconstitutional by the Bush Administration. Before Obama's decision, seventeen other states had agreed to follow California's CAFE standards as soon as the EPA waiver was granted. Mr. Obama's new CAFE standards now supersede any state's CAFE standards and aim to bring the nation's cars and trucks to a fuel efficiency more on par with European standards.


Naturally, both California's efforts to unilaterally set its own CAFE standards and the new standards recently set by Obama generated enormous resistance from the auto industry. However, the new CAFE standards, assuming they are followed, are estimated to have the equivalent impact of saving 900 million tons of carbon or removing 3.7 million cars from the roads.