On the Essential Role of Land Use in the Fight Against Climate Change

The Biden administration in April announced a bold target to reduce the country's greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent from 2005 levels by the end of this decade. A recent report by researchers at the Brookings Institution argues that those targets won't be possible without systems-level changes in very sector of the economy, and unfortunately, the strategy announced by the Bien administration only skimmed over a "central driver of the climate crisis": unsustainable land use practices.

Adie Tomer, Joseph W. Kane, Jenny Schuetz, and Caroline George write to recenter land use in climate discussions, stating that the country won't achieve its goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by continuing to grow as it has in the past.

"After decades of sprawl, the U.S. has the dubious honor of being a world leader in both building-related energy consumption and vehicle miles traveled per capita. Making matters worse, lower-density development also pollutes our water and requires higher relative emissions during the initial construction," reads the article.

As a prescription for the consequences of the history of land use in the United States, the article proposes: "We must prioritize development in the kinds of neighborhoods that permanently reduce total driving and consume less energy."

"Such human-centered neighborhoods have the added benefit of helping us adapt to climate impacts, improve public health, and promote access to activities. Encouraging their development should be a central part of any national climate resilience strategy," continues the article.

Environmentalists have long connected sprawling development patterns to negative environmental outcomes like air pollution, but the connections between sprawl and the emissions that cause climate change tend to be underappreciated, or deliberately ignored, by even some of the most ardent environmentalists. The international community, led by the United Nations, has recently amplified the blame for climate change on the appetite in the United States for large, gas guzzling automobiles and sprawling development patterns.