A report from the Sabin Center provides a legal framework for municipal-level action on climate change policy.
The Sabin Center for Climate Change Law's Amy E. Turner and Michael Burger provide a legal framework for cities wanting to take action on climate change goals in their local jurisdictions. The document "is meant to highlight potential issues and offer a range of paths forward that cities may consider in pursuing their municipal carbon reduction goals."
Outlining the four sectors that contribute to greenhouse gas emissions––buildings, transportation, energy, and waste––the report explores carbon reduction policies that can be implemented at the municipal level and "cross-cutting legal frameworks that inform many areas of city climate policy, as well as legal concepts that influence how equity may be incorporated into those policy domains."
Potential decarbonization tools in the four sectors include:
- Buildings: building energy benchmarking, energy efficiency retrofits, changes in local building codes, restriction on energy sources.
- Transportation: land use and zoning reform, support of alternative transportation modes, congestion pricing, and investment in electric vehicle infrastructure.
- Energy: investment in renewable energy programs at the household level and the utility scale.
- Waste: recycling and organic waste collection programs, waste management requirements for new buildings, plastic bans, and regulation of waste companies.
The report also includes a chapter on equity, citing the impacts of climate change on BIPOC and low-income communities and the interwoven nature of decarbonization, housing, and jobs policies. While the authors note that all cities have different legal constraints, the framework can serve as an informational tool to guide city leaders towards the most effective decarbonization policies.
FULL STORY: Cities Climate Law: A Legal Framework for Local Action in the U.S.
Op-Ed: Michigan Needs a New Transportation Strategy
One writer calls on the state to stop expanding roads and channel funding to projects that support Michigan’s sustainability goals.
Grid Operator Calls for Two-Year Pause on Solar Projects, Citing Massive Backlog
The largest grid operator in the U.S. is asking for a new approvals process and two-year delay on current applications to ease the logjam of primarily solar projects in its queue.
A Year of Climate Action for Cities
The Trump administration might have dealt numerous setbacks in the fight to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but climate action in 2020 went local, with cities all over the country finding new ways to reduce emissions.
America’s Best New Bike Lanes
PeopleForBikes highlights some of the most exciting new bike infrastructure projects completed in 2022.
Massachusetts Zoning Reform Law Reaches First Deadline
Cities and towns had until January 31 to submit their draft plans for rezoning areas near transit stations to comply with a new state law.
Green Alleys: A New Paradigm for Stormwater Management
Rather than shuttling stormwater away from the city and into the ocean as quickly as possible, Los Angeles is now—slowly—moving toward a ‘city-as-sponge’ approach that would capture and reclaim more water to recharge crucial reservoirs.
Cleveland: The Nation’s Most Equitably Walkable City
A new study assesses which cities have the broadest access to walkable neighborhoods.
Conspiracy Theorists Discover the 15-Minute City
USA Today debunks the false claim that the United Nations’ call for enabling 15-minute cities is a coded plan to institute ‘climate change lockdowns.’
HUD Grants Total $315 Million for Continuum of Care for the Unhoused
An unprecedented federal grant program, announced earlier this month, will support continuum of care for the unhoused in unsheltered and rural settings.
Ascent Environmental
California Polytechnic State University
City of Albuquerque Planning Department
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
Harvard GSD Executive Education
City of Hercules
City of Fitchburg, WI
City of Culver City
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
