Louisville Climate Action Report

The city of Louisville, together with the University and public school system -- aka "The Partnership for a Green City -- this week released a climate action report in time for Earth Day. This press release is on the University's website:

The report’s bottom line is this: People in Louisville Metro will have to collectively cut carbon emissions by more than 2 million tons to achieve the goals set forth in a climate protection agreement signed by a group of U.S. mayors in 2005. By signing it, the mayors pledged to seek to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from city operations and the community at large to 7 percent below 1990 levels by 2012.

According to a recent report issued by the Brookings Institution and quoted in the Climate Action Report, GHG emissions per capita within the Louisville Metro area are among the highest in the nation for large municipalities. The Louisville Metro area has the fourth highest per capita GHG emissions among the 100 largest metropolitan areas and is well above the estimated national average.

The report notes that 29% of emissions locally result from residential electricity consumption and 29% more are from transportation. The cheapest way to cut emissions is to reduce energy consumption.

I served on the Utility Regulations, Policies and Practices Subcommittee, though I also attended a meeting of the Education and Outreach subcommittee and met informally with other members over the past couple of years.

For the past three semesters I've been active in the College of Arts & Sciences "Green Team," which is trying to reduce energy consumption on campus.


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