Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Environmental Policy

Selected Works

2012

Municipal Climate Protection

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

An Assessment Of The Impact That Participation In Local Climate Networks Has On Cities’ Implementation Of Climate, Energy, And Transportation Policies, Rachel Krause Dec 2011

An Assessment Of The Impact That Participation In Local Climate Networks Has On Cities’ Implementation Of Climate, Energy, And Transportation Policies, Rachel Krause

Rachel M. Krause

Much of the attention surrounding local climate protection in the United States is associated with two networks: ICLEI’s Cities for Climate Protection and the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ Climate Protection Agreement (MCPA). However, the impact of these networks on member-city actions has not been clearly established. This paper examines whether, and to what extent, participation in climate networks leads to the implementation of GHG-reducing policies, above and beyond what would have been done in their absence. To account for the possibility that cities which join climate networks are systematically different from those that do not and control for self-selection induced …


The Impact Of Municipal Renewable Electricity Use On Greenhouse Gas Emissions In The United States, Rachel M. Krause Dec 2011

The Impact Of Municipal Renewable Electricity Use On Greenhouse Gas Emissions In The United States, Rachel M. Krause

Rachel M. Krause

Local governments are increasingly taking initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. However, limited and inconsistent data makes evaluating the aggregate impact of relevant actions difficult. This paper focuses specifically on U.S. city governments’ use of renewable electricity to power their own operations. It develops a range of rough estimates for the cumulative nationwide impact of this activity and finds that it results in an annual abatement of between 5.8 and 29.2 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e), with the best approximation being 6.2 million tons CO2e a year. This is about 20% of the estimated total that …