Walking the Talk
Why Cities Adopt Ambitious Climate Action Plans
Sanya Bery (Wesleyan University) and Mary Alice Haddad (Wesleyan University)
Why do some municipalities adopt ambitious climate action plans and others do not? How can we encourage more cities to be ambitious? The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has warned that CO2 emissions must reach net zero by 2050 to prevent the most devastating consequences of global climate change (Rogelj et al. 2018).[1] Cities consume more than two-third of the world’s energy, emit more than seventy percent of the global CO2 emissions,[2] and contain 55% of the world’s population,[3] so their efforts will be critical to our ability to prevent catastrophic combat climate change.
Our study examines U.S. cities that have signed the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy, to identify the factors that have led some of them (37%, 63 cities) to adopt ambitious (Net Zero) climate action plans. It finds that two factors make the most difference: a) whether the city has a paid city employee (or department) dedicated to environmental/energy management and b) whether the city has a university. Surprisingly, many of the factors that are highlighted by the press and academia, such as per capita income, state funding, population size, partisan orientation, and membership in international climate networks, did not significantly influence how ambitious a city’s climate action plan was. Figure 1 illustrates how dramatically these two factors were associated with ambitious city climate action plans.
Figure 1: City Climate Action Plans, Universities and City Staff
Why are dedicated city staff and the presence of a university (or college or community college) so important for getting cities to take ambitious policy action on climate change? The story of our own City of Middletown, CT, helps reveal why having dedicated city staff and a local institution of higher education are so critical. We discovered that having city staff dedicated to climate/energy issues provided the necessary in-house technical expertise and institutional knowledge that enables cities to (a) develop ambitious climate action plans and (b) shepherd them through the relevant bureaucratic and political processes.
In our study of the process in Middletown, we found that collaborations with a local university gave the city additional financial support, technical expertise, and numerous volunteer hours that made the ambitious plan possible. In the case of Middletown, Wesleyan University pledged to buy 1Gwh of clean energy and funded student interns who helped the city gather the data necessary to demonstrate compliance for the Sustainable Connecticut initiative the provided the foundation for the city’s ambitious energy plan to be 100% renewable by 2050. Additionally, the university’s Director of Sustainability as well as several faculty and staff members who lived in the city volunteered as members of the city’s Clean Energy Taskforce, which was responsible for putting the energy plan together. The university also frequently served as a testing ground for sustainability initiatives such as micro grids before they were developed for the broader city. Finally, several Wesleyan classes worked on city-related class projects, helping the city get closer to its sustainability goals (e.g., a 2018 GIS class mapped and analyzed where in the city solar panels should be deployed, and a 2019 environmental economics class did a cost-benefit analysis of the proposed expansion of a nearby power plant).
In sum, our research debunks the myth common in the media that only large, rich, Democratic-leaning cities can take ambitious policy action to address climate change. In fact, we found that the richest cites were more likely to have moderate (80% reduction) than ambitious (Net Zero) plans. The cities most likely to have ambitious plans were middle-income cities (city revenue of $100-$500 million), and three times as many of the poorest cities (city revenue of less than $10 million) had moderately ambitious or ambitions plans (6 cities) than no plan (2 cities). While most cities were in areas that voted for Democratic candidates in the 2020 election, many of the cities who voted for Republicans also had ambitions plans, and partisanship was not a statistically significant variable in our larger-n analysis.
Cities that want to take ambitious action on climate change should (a) hire a fulltime staff member to focus on climate/energy if they do not already have one and (b) reach out to local universities or colleges or similar institutions to collaborate. Universities that wish their cities were doing more to address climate change should reach out to see what they can do to support ambitious policy action.
The IPCC has told us that we must reach Net Zero carbon emissions by 2050 to avoid the worst effects of climate change. This study has demonstrated that many cities in the United States have already risen to the challenge and developed Net Zero climate action plans with clear, measurable benchmarks to ensure timely progress. Furthermore, these ambitious cities can be found across all regions of the country, at all income levels, they come in all sizes, and have the full range of partisan affiliations. Cities are responsible for most of the carbon emissions in the world. They can and must take positive, aggressive action towards a creating Net Zero future for us all.
Read the full UAR article here.
[1] IPCC Summary for Policymakers (accessed Aug. 12, 2021).
[2] C40, Why Cities Matter (accessed June 7, 2021).
[3] UN, 68% of the world population projected to live in urban areas by 2050. (accessed June 7, 2021).
Sanya Bery graduated with high honors in Government and Environmental Studies from Wesleyan University in 2021. This paper is based on her honors thesis. She will begin her Masters of Sustainability and Development at the University of Michigan in fall 2022.
Mary Alice Haddad is the John E. Andrus Professor of Government, Professor of East Asian Studies, and Professor Environmental Studies at Wesleyan University. She is author and co-editor of numerous books on environmental politics, East Asia, and civil society. She is currently working on a book project related to city diplomacy.