New Brookings Institution Report Ranks Citites' Carbon Footprint

A new national ranking of local communities’ carbon footprints scheduled for release this week provides further evidence that local governments must play a critical role in the country’s response to climate change. 

“The courage and leadership local governments have shown on climate protection must be matched by complementary action at the federal level,” said Michelle Wyman, Executive Director of ICLEI USA.  “Local communities’ greenhouse gas emissions, and their power to effectively reduce them, are significant. Emissions and solutions are both at the local level.”

WHAT: The Brookings Institution report, Shrinking the Carbon Footprint of Metropolitan America, ranks the carbon footprints of the nation’s 100 largest metropolitan areas based on total metric tons of carbon emissions per capita in 2005.  The report is available online at http://www.brookings.edu/metro/CarbonFootprint.aspx and is embargoed until Thursday, May 29.

CONTACT: Please contact Michelle Daniels with Brookings directly with inquiries about the report (202.797.6270).

For more information about ICLEI and our emissions inventory software and methodology, please contact Annie Strickler, Communications Director, at 510.599.3021 or Garrett Fitzgerald, Programs Director, at 510.855.0699. You can also visit http://www.icleiusa.org/action-center/general-resources/brookings-rankings.

Key Points of Comparison between Brookings Data and ICLEI’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventories:

• For 15 years ICLEI members (now more than 400 local governments in the U.S.) have participated in the Five Milestone Methodology, the first step of which is conducting a baseline emissions inventory.  Members use ICLEI’s Clean Air and Climate Protection (CACP) software to conduct a comprehensive emissions analysis.
• The Brookings data covers metropolitan areas consisting of multiple counties, cities and towns, depending on the specific area.  ICLEI data typically covers an individual city, county, or town.
• ICLEI member local governments develop more comprehensive emissions analyses.  The Brookings data only includes emissions related to energy consumption in residential buildings and highway transportation by cars and trucks.  ICLEI data collection attempts to cover all sources of carbon emissions in a specific community.  Emissions from transportation on local roads, not included in the Brookings data, in many communities is considerably larger than emissions associated with interstate travel and in most cases is more policy relevant for local governments.  Similarly, the Brookings data does not include emissions from commercial and industrial energy consumption or other sources of emissions (e.g., waste decomposition), which in many communities is even more significant.