The United Nations Calls on U.S. Planners to Break Land Use, Transportation Status Quo

The United Nations published the “Emissions Gap Report 2022” at the end of October, once again calling attention to the vast differences between the changes necessary to prevent the worst effects of climate change. In the United States—much of the remaining gap between where we are with emissions and where we need to be is a direct consequence of planning decisions. It’s the car-centric planning—and United Nations Secretary General António Guterres even went so far as to deploy a tongue-in-cheek metaphor to make a point while announcing the report, saying “We are on a highway to climate hell with our foot on the accelerator.”

Bill Pugh provides an in-depth description of the new report in a guest contribution for Greater Greater Washington, focusing first on the prioritization list for greenhouse gas emission reductions included in the list. Issues of transportation and land use appear early and often. The most important actions for the transportation sector to take, according to the report are to 1) integrate land use and transportation planning to prioritize public transit over private automobiles, 2) investment in projects and programs to make high capacity, low-carbon transportation cheaper and easier, and 3) complete the transmission to zero-emission power for vehicles of all kinds.

According to Pugh, the nation is poised to make a real choice about whether it gets to work immediately on these needed shifts given the huge influx of funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act. The Greater Washington, D.C. area has two opportunities to make contributions to the effort, according to Pugh: the Visualize 2045 long-range transportation plan for the region and the TransAction long-range plan for the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority. Both plans include billions for road funding and would double down on the GHG emitting status quo, according to Pugh.

“This is an opportunity for residents of suburban MD, DC, and Northern VA to demand that their local officials prioritize climate and make necessary changes,” writes Pugh.