Local governments are taking climate action plans to a new leve

ont holil \()ur breath waiting for a newglobal climate agreement and federal legis-ladon to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.Both may sdll be stalled, given the lack ofprogress at the Copenhagen negodadonsand in the U.S. Congress. The oudook ismore promising at the local level, however,as city and county governments condnue toramp up their own climate acdon plans.

By die end of 2009, at least 141 localjurisdicdons had developed climate acdonplans, according to the intemadonal non-profit ICLEI—Local Governments forSustainability. More than 600 govemmentshad joined ICXEI's Cides for Climate Pro-tecdon Campaign, which commits them toimplemendng such a plan as well as con-ducdng a greenhouse gas emissions inven-tory and adopdng an emissions reducdontarget.

Also by the end of last year, more than1,000 mayors had signed on to the U.S.Mayors Climate Protecdon Agreement—apledge to meet or beat the nadon's assignedtarget, under the Kyoto Protocol, of reduc-ing emissions seven percent below 1990levels by 2012. Some mayors signed as partof an effort to generate bottom-up pressurefor federal acdon, following former Presi-dent George W Bush's decision to abandondie Kyoto Protocol.

In part, the local planning efforts are the

result of healthy compeddon. Every placewants to become "the greenest city in thestate or nadon," says Juan Matute, direc-tor of the Program on Local Govemment(Climate Acdon Policies at the University ofCalifomia-Los Angeles.

Where climate planning is taking placeis also notable. "It's not just a Left Coastacdvity," says Amy Malick, ICLEFs climateprotecdon program manager. She pointsto Kansas City as one "unsung hero" thathas a pardcularly aggressive green buildingprogram. Besides adopdng citywide greenbuilding requirements for municipal facili-des and private projects receiving economicdevelopment support, the city has concen-trated federal sdmulus dollars in a "Green

Impact Zone" close to downtown. Plans forthe 150-block zone—^which suffers fi-omhigh crime and unemployment rates andwhich has many abandoned properdes—include weatherizing every home thatneeds it, creadng a smart energy grid, andoffering training programs for green jobs.

Of course, economic arguments are of-ten as powerful as environmental ones. InAnn Arbor, Michigan, the roots of the city'sclimate program lie in the energy planningwork begun during the 1970s oil crisis. Theprogram is seen as both enviromnentallyprogressive and a way to save money onenergy bills, says energy programs man-ager Andrew Brix. But there's also a moregeneral benefit: "If Ann Arbor is going to

16 I Planning August/September 2010

2\,c±ioy% Is

be a town that jieople want to live in andthat attracts new businesses, we need to bea climate-friendly city," he adds.

Others cite green job creation as an-other reason for climate planning, Debo-rah Salon, staff economist at the Institute ofTransportation Studies at the University ofCalifornia, Davis, is leading research on cli-mate planning in California cities. She notesthat planners working on a climate actionplan for die Central Valley city of Fresno

Testing air quality forthe Central California AirQuality Studies (oppo-site). Above: SouthernCalifornia cities vary in theircommitment to climateaction plans: general planpolicy addressing GHG(yellow); climate actionplan (purple); climate ac-tion plan and general planpolicies (green); all othersin blue. Left: Refrigeratedtrucks are monitored foremissions, as requiredunder California's 2006 lawon global warming.

emphasize the things that could bring "lotsof green jobs and an energy-efficient hous-ing stock." And, she adds, "you don't haveto be an environmentalist to support thosestrategies,"

Leading the states

As it happens, California is at the center ofclimate planning. Its local governments arepRxiucing tnore than one-third of all theclimate action plans being developed in the

Ad8111 M i l l a r d - B a l l

U.S., according to ICLEI data. Further, a2008 survey by the Public Policy Institute ofCalifornia found that three-quarters of localgovernments in the state were working onclimate i,ssues. Half had completed climateaction plans or were planning to do so.

Two flagship state laws have played amajor role in catalyzing local action. As-sembly Bill 32, passed in 2006, set out anoverall emission reduction target and poli-cy framework for the state. Senate Bill 37S,adopted in 2008, created greenhouse gastargets and funding incentives for metro-politan planning organizations.

Neither law requires local climate plan-ning. But state Attorney General JerryBrt)wn has argued that greenhouse gasemissions must be analyzed and mitigatedunder the California Environmental Qual-ity Act—and he has filed suit against localgovernments that have failed to do so inconjunction with general plan updates. Asettlement agreement negotiated with SanBernardino County, the target of one suchsuit, required that a climate action plan hedeveloped.

Even without a mandate, these lawshave caught the attention of local officials,says Terry Roberts, planning liaison at the

American Planning Association 17

California Air Resources Board. They have"elevated the focus on greenhouse gasemissions and climate change," and madelocal governments ponder how to addressthe issue.

Bigger thinking

Climate action plans typically include agreenhouse gas emissions inventory andemission reduction targets for municipalojjeradons, and sometimes for the widercommunity as well. Transportadon, energyand buildings, and waste management areoften the main areas addressed, with someplans also including urban forestry and wa-ter conservadon.

Roberts notes a trend toward plans thatmove beyond city hall. "The early climateacdon plans were dealing mainly with mu-nicipal operadons: improving fleet vehicleefficiency, recycling, and energy efficiencyin city buildings," she says. "Now, more ofthese plans are dealing with jurisdicdon-wide policies such as land-use planning."

Ann Arbor is a case in point. Undl re-cendy, says Brix, its climate efforts weremainly limited to securing energy savingsin city departments. But in 2006, follow-ing the city council's adopdon of the GreenEnergy Challenge, the city began to setwider goals. The challenge is actually aseries of targets aimed at encouraging theuse of renewable energy and at reducinggreenhouse gas emissions 20 percent city-wide from 2000 levels by 2015.

Bdx's posidon is funded by chargingcity departments propordonally for theirshare of energy use. (The mechanism is aninterdepartmental transfer fee.) "The rado-nale is that I'm able to save them moneyon their bills, or bring in grant fiinding fortheir projects," he says. "It's a similar modelto IT and other services. It's pretty com-mon in Ann Arbor to charge other depart-ments for services."

Strategies

Federal stimulus funding under the EnergyEfficiency and Conservadon Block Granthas enabled Ann Arbor to add a new staffmember to work on community-wide en-ergy programs. Across the country, the $3.2billion EECBG, which includes $2.7 biUionin formula grants to cides and states and$454 million in compeddve grants, has beena shot in the arm for local climate work.

The stimulus funds can be used bothto develop climate plans and to implement

Greenprint Denvertakes a broad-

brush approachtosustainability

planning—includingwater conservation

and natural landsmanagement. Here:

an urban park whereCherry Creek and the

South Platte Rivermeet in Denver's

Lower Downtown.

energy programs. And several local govern-ments have used exisdng climate plans tohelp secure addidonal funding from com-peddve grant programs.

In Durham, North Carolina, a jointcity-county proposal with Durham Countyresulted in a $500,000 grant from EPNsClimate Showcase Communides pro-gram. The grant, received this spring, willbe used to expand a neighborhood-basedresidendal energy retrofit program, whichwas latmched vidth fiinding from the city'sEECBG fiinds.

"We're working with volunteers whogo door to door talking about energy ef-ficiency—^what resources and grants areout there, showing people how to put inweather stripping, and so on," says TbbinFreid, Durham's sustainability manager. Inaddidon to training and equipping the vol-unteers, the fiinding will pay for retrofittingalmost 700 homes.

Focusing on the neighborhood is a wayto raise the visibility of energy efficiencyprograms, Freid adds: "Neighbors talk totheir neighbors."

Freid says the target neighborhoods arecharacterized by single-story houses thatare under 2,000 square feet and have nounvented internal combusdon appliances.Contractors will seal air ducts, add atdcinsuladon, seal air leaks in atdcs and crawlspaces, and install programmable thermo-

stats. "Probably 90 to 95 percent of housesneed those things, so you don't need to useexpensive diagnosdc tools," says Freid. "Wecan get a pretty good bang tor the buck."

Different strategies are used elsewhere.One is the Property Assessed Clean En-ergy program or PACE, which is aimed atreducing greenhouse gas emissions frombuildings.

PACE was the brainchild of CiscoDeVries, former chief of staff to MayorTom Bates in Berkeley, C^alifomia. DeVriescame up with the idea as a way to fund solarenergy while developing Berkeley's climateacdon plan in 2007.

Here's how it works: Local governmentsissue bonds for various energy retrofits (notjust solar) on individual homes. The bondsare repaid (typically over 20 years) by par-dcipadng home owners, who are chargeda special assessment. The idea has sincespread across the country, and other juris-dicdons are using it for a range of projects.

"PACE is arguably the future of energyfinancing," says Ann Arbor's Andrew Brix,who is working with other Michigan cit-ies to get enabling legisladon through thestate legislature. For home owners who canobtain financing elsewhere, PACE helps bytying the loan to the property, reducing therisk for the home owner of losing out if theproperty is sold.

"One of the challenges that PACE ad-

18 Planning August/September 2010

IBKIGrasping the Science

dresses is that banks and appraisers don'tnecessarily recognize the value of the en-ergy improvements," says Brix. "It's not likea kitchen remodel."

Big picture

A climate action plan is just one way thatcities can incorporate greenhouse gas emis-sion goals in the local planning process.Some places, such as Denver, are address-ing climate change as part of sustainabilityplans, which have a broader environmentalreturn.

"The climate action plan is one bigcomponent of the Greenprint Denver ini-tiative," says Greenprint director MichèleWeingarden, but the initiative also includeswater conservation, waste diversion, eco-nomic development, land use and trans-portation, and natural lands management."It's a three-legged stool that's looking ateconomic, societal, and environmental sus-tainability," she says.

The program staff relies on "urban fel-lows" on loan from other departments, apractice that helps to reduce the program'scost and to ensure involvement across citygovernment. "They come to us for a yearand then take that knowledge back to theiragency," she says. The competitively selectedfellows undertake the program managementand other tasks of regular employees, such asmarketing and neighborhood outreach.

Do recent controversies about the science behind climate changemean that planners should let up on mitigation and adaptationefforts? Certainly not. But we should be prepared to discussscience-based skepticism and confront ignorance and narrowself-interest. A recent Gallup poll found that 48 percent ofAinericans believe the seriousness of global warming is exagger-ated, up from 30 percent in 2006. Local and regional plannerscan no longer simply point to Al Gore's movie. An IncmivenientTruth., and say that the matter is settled.

In late 2009, hacked e-mails led to questions about theclimate science undertaken at the University of East Anglia inthe U.K. In response, an international panel organized by TheRoyal Society, Great Britain's national science academy, reviewedcharges that the East Anglia scientists "dishonestly selected,manipulated and/or presented [climatic data] to arrive at pre-determined conclusions." The panel found "no evidence of anydeliberate scientific malpractice," but it noted that the "dedicatedif slightly disorganized researchers" could have had better recordkeeping, more accessible data sets, and more collaboration withstatisticians.

Recently, too, the UN.-sponsored Intergovernmental Panelon Climate Change made a mistake in reporting on the expecteddisappearance of the Himalayan Glaciers, revealing a flaw in thegroup's peer review process.

This year's snowy winter added another wrinkle to the discus-sion, but it also showed that our senses may mislead us becauselocal variability is not the same as a global climate pattern. Tounderstand global patterns we must use global data.

Einally, advocacy by corporate interests increases public skep-ticism. Two Texas oil companies are funding an effort to blockimplementation of California's AB 32 Global Warming SolutionsAct until the state's unemployment rate drops below 5.5 percent.

Eor planners, educating ourselves and the public about basicclimate science is the obvious first step. We should be able toexplain the process and the tools of science if we are to com-bat those who would distort the interpretation of findings. Eorexample, the IPCC provides levels of statistical confidence in itsassessments. Some critics have manipulated these figures to sug-gest a lack of scientific agreement. By appropriately organizingand framing the discussion, we can help to untangle facts aboutclimate change from the value positions that are part of publicdiscourse.

Science is always presenting alternative hypotheses, newmeasurement schemes, and different interpretations of data.Climate change science is no exception. WTiat we can say is this:Global temperatures are warming, human activity is inducingthat warming, and predictions of future global temperature in-creases carry some uncertainty. The profession's comprehensive,long-term approach and its ability to link science with policysuggest a vital role for planners. We must be the voice of reasonon this increasingly polarized issue, distinguishing between validscientific skepticism and ideologically driven denial.

Richard Wiilson, FAICP

I Wilison is a professor of urban and regional pianning at Caiifornia State Poiytech-nic University, Pomona.

American Planning Association 19

Carbon Capture with Artificial TreesUnlike people, animals, and machines, trees siphon carlxin dioxide out of the air. Canthe same thing be accomplished mechanically?

A recent documentary on the Discovery Channel described a new air-capturedevice—called an "artificial tree"—that is being designed to do just that. It seemsthat artificial trees may be able to drastically reduce carlxin dioxide emissions—if thedevices are mass produced and deployed across the globe.

An artificial tree operates in three phases: capture, removal, and storage. Eirst, ittraps carbon dioxide from the air with a filter chamber containing a material ("leaves")that absorb the CO^. Next, the CO^ is removed from the filter and released by acleaning process. Finally, it is transported, stored, and secured.

COj can be buried underground. The most feasible storage method is confine-ment in depleted oil and gas reservoirs, deep unused saline formations, and deepabandoned coal seams, according to Britain's Insdtudon of Mechanical Engineers.Liquid CO, can be transported via ships, road, or rail tankers, but the U.S. EPA sayspipelines are the most cost-efïecdve way to haul large volumes of the gas.

The larger the collector stirfece and the higher the speed of the air blowingthrough the artificial tree, the greater the tree's absorption power. However, even abreeze wül allow an ardfidal tree to capture COj, and, according to IME, such a treeis "several thousand times more effective at removing CO," than natural trees.

Early versions of an artificial tree developed by Columbia University geophysicistKlaus Lackner used sodium hydroxide as the sorbent material for the filter. Thatcleaning process was too expensive and consumed too much energy, however, soLadcner's research team developed a sorbent material that can be washed in watervapor to remove the COj. That change dramatically reduced energy consumption.

Commercial-scale geologic sequestration is occurring in Canada, Norway,and Algeria, and the U.S. Department of Energy is conducting research onsimilar technologies.

Benefits and costs

According to an IME report, "some 50 percent of global CO, emissions are emittedfrom non-stadonary and dispersed sources, with about 20 percent derived from thetransportation sector alone." A key advantage of artificial trees (or any air-captureapproach) is that they can be placed virtually anywhere in the world, and can thus ad-dress CO, regardless of the source. The IME report suggests that ardficial trees couldbe placed along highways and in spots where CO, concentradons are particularlyhigh, thus creating a "low-carbon highway." The "trees" can also be grouped togetherin artificial "forests."

The report contends that "some 100,000 artificial trees [each absorbing 10 tons ofCO, per day] would be sufficient to capture the whole of the UK's c-urrent non-stadonary and dispersed emissions." What is more, "five to 10 million 'trees' couldremove the current global annual non-energy production of CO, emissions." Eachartificial tree might take out a ton of CO, a day, the equivalent of the CO, producedby 20 average vehicles in the U.S.

Manufacturing costs are expected to amount to about 20 percent of tbe total costof removing CO, from the atmosphere with this type of technology. According toLackner's estimates, once in production, the oibin-siz^d air-capture devices wouldcost about $20,000 each. Recovering CO, from the sortent filter material is the mostexpensive operadon in tenns of energy and cost, but Lackner expects that cost to be"similar to that anticipated in a conventional post-combustion [carbon capture ajidstorage] process."

Some experts suggest that economies of scale could reduce overall costs as thetechnology improves. Others, though, say that the reported costs of using the tech-nology are "gross underestimates."Jerry Weitz,f/KP

H Weitz is the editor of Practicing Planner, the quarterly online publication of the American Institute of Certified Plan-ners. He is an associate professor and director of the urban and regional planning program in the Department ofGeography at East Carolina University.

Other cities are incorporating climateplanning into comprehensive plan or gen-eral plan updates. "There has definitelybeen an evolution," says Tabetha Willmonof the California Air Resources Board. "Alot of the climate plans developed earlier inthis decade were more stand-alone. Theylooked at transportation, buildings, andother areas. We're now seeing a differentlevel of integration with the general plan."

The dty of San Carlos near San Francis-co comes to mind. Its general plan includesbroad ¡wlicies, but also refers to more de-tailed measures in the climate action plan,which is to be updated every five years."We are now seeing that our approach isproviding a model for future general plansand climate action plans In the region andthe states and perhaps the country," sayscommunity development direaor Al Savay,

AICP.

"Adopting climate policies in the gener-al plan is an indication that climate changehas been insdtudonahzed in government,"suggests Juan Matute of UCLA. "Cities candevelop a climate action plan to start, but aspart of that process they can oudine futuregeneral plan goals, objectives, and policies"that then become part of a comprehensiveplan.

Still, stand-alone climate plans do haveadvantages. Matute says. "The process isless formahzed and cheaper and quicker,"taking perhaps 18 months instead of themany years ofren devoted to general planupdates.

Another trend Matute notes is a movetoward regional collaboration. An exampleis the South Bay Cities Council of Govern-ment, a consortium of municipalities in theLos Angeles metropolitan region. "Theyworked with ICLEI to conduct operationalemissions inventories for every city in the

One design for a carbon dioxide capture devicecombines a scrubber with a storage container.

20 Planning August/September 2010

COG," he explains. "It's a way to reducethe cost because you can bring in one con-sultant, and COG staff can work with thecides to consolidate requests to udlides forenergy consumpdon data."

Transit agencies are also stardng todevelop emission reducdon plans, and theAmerican Public Transportadon Associa-don was due to issue its guidelines on cli-mate acdon planning in late July. Accordingto Eric Hesse, chair of the APTA climatechange working group, a climate plan canhelp agencies idendfy cost-saving emissionreducdon measures and demonstrate theenvironmental benefits of transit. "This isan opportunity to burnish public transpor-tadon's image, both to the public it serves,as well as to local, state, and federal offi-cials," state the draft guidelines.

Implementation hurdles

Some crides complain that local climateplamiing is light on results. Wridng in theJournal of the American Planning Association

in Autumn 2008, Stephen Wheeler, AICP,found that the first generadon of state andmunicipal climate plans tends to "lack thestrong acdons and polidcal and insdtudonalcommionent needed to midgate emissionsor adapt to climate change." At that point,"many propwsed acdons are voluntary, fewresources have been allocated, and iinple-mentadon of most measures has not yettaken place," concluded Wheeler, associateprofessor of landscap« architecture at theUniversity of Califomia, Davis.

Claire Bonham-Carter sees morepromise in the cun-ent generadon of plans."We're seeing a move toward a lot more de-tail in individual strategies and measures,"says Bonham-Carter, who is the directorof sustainable development pracdce for theintemadonal consuldng firm, AECOM,headquartered in LA. "Earlier plans weremore conceptual and didn't include thenitty-gritty of how their reducdon targetswere going to be met, or quandfy howmuch greenhouse gas reducdon they wereexpecdng from each measure. People arerealizing that they need a bit more quan-dficadon and analysis in their plans so thatthey can be sure they meet their targets,"

Amy Malick of ICLEI praises the robustreporting systems in New York and Chica-go. She calls for cides to do the same for cli-mate as for other areas of service provision."Cides already track things like emergencyresponse times. If you can do the same for

climate, it raises the level of importance ofclimate measures."

New York's PlaNYC progress reportfor 2010 shows that 56 percent of the plan'smilestones have been achieved or mosdyachieved. It also finds that citywide carbonemissions declined nine percent between2005 and 2008, putdng the city on trackto achieve its 30 percent reducdon goalby 2030. Data on emissions and the plan'sother sustainability indicators are madeavailable through the city's online trackingportal.

In Chicago, Joyce Coffee, director ofproject development in the Departmentof Environment and the city's climate planmanager, highlights the "dashboard," aninternal management tool that shows im-plementadon progress for 33 of the mostimportant acdons in the plan. Monthly staffmeetings allow each of the relevant depart-ments to report progress in five of theirpriority areas.

A major benefit of the climate acdonplan has been to insdtudonalize this per-formance tracking system, says Coffee. "Ithas heljjed the dty to make climate acdonpart of business as usual." TTie planninggroundwork has also helped the city to usefederal stimulus money "more rapidly andwith more impact," she adds.

Climate planning to date has focusedsquarely on midgadon—the reducdon ofgreenhouse gas emissions. The wave of thefuture, though, is adaptadon planning: con-fronting the impacts of climate change.

As part of its climate acdon plan, Chi-cago commissioned an impact analysis led

by two climate sciendsts, Donald WuebblesfTom the University of Illinois and Katha-rine Hayhoe from Texas Tech University.

"No one would have believed before theanalysis was completed that we'd have 30days per year above 100 degrees by the endof the century," says Coffee. "That reorientshow we manage extreme weather risk,"

T h e Chicag} CliTtmte Impacts Report,

completed in 2008, predicts that heatwaves similar to the 1995 event, whichkilled almost 700 people, will occur everyfive years on average by the middle of thecentury. "Oppressive summer weather pat-terns could arrive in Chicago earlier in theyear and last longer, causing air quality todecrease and further affecdng respiratoryillnesses and disease," it states.

"We found that however much we mid-gated, we're going to need to adapt, and theimpacts analysis really drove that home,"says Coffee.

Andrew Brix agrees that a careful plancan help to set priorides, pardcularly nowthat more ñinding opportunides are avail-able fi-om the federal govemment and fromudlides. But, he caudons, there is sometimesa need for immediate acdon. "Climate andenergy plans are important, but there needsto be a balance with implementadon. Atsome point, you have to put the plan downand go and build something."

• Adam Millard-Ball is a PhD candidate at StanfordUniversity and a former principal of the transporta-tion planning firm NelsonNNygaard. His current workfocuses on local climate planning, and the impaaof cartion offsets and cap-and-trade programs intransportation.

FROM APA "California's Aerial Combat," Pianning, February 2009; "California Putson the Brakes," Pianning, May 2007.

CfHICAGO STUDIES TheCity of Chicago (www.chicagociimateaction.org) offers severalresources for other local governments, including a "Lessons Learned"report.

CALIFORNIA UCLA's Program on Local Government Climate Action Policies (\N\NW.lewis.ucla.edu/climate) includes a database of funding opportunitiesandan inventory of climate planning efforts in SouthernCalifornia.

BEST PRACTICES See ICLEI (www.icleiusa.org/programs/climate); U.S. EPA

(www.epa.gov/statelocalclimate/resources/strategy-guides.html);Institute for Local Government (www.ca-ilg.org/ClimateChange); andCool California (www.coolcaiifornia.org/local-government). ICLEI alsopublishes a decision-support tool to analyze strategies (www.icleiusa.org/action-center/tools/cappa-decision-support-tool).

American Planning Association 21

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