NEWS New RAEL publication highlights Carbon Footprint Planning: Quantifying Local and State Mitigation Opportunities for 700 California CitiesApril 17, 2018

In a new study Chris Jones, Steve Wheel­er of UC Davis, and Dan Kam­men detail how con­sump­tion-​​based green­house gas (GHG) emis­sions inven­to­ries have emerged to describe full life cycle con­tri­bu­tions of house­holds to cli­mate change at coun­try, state and increas­ingly city scales. Using this approach, how much car­bon foot­print abate­ment poten­tial is with­in the con­trol of local gov­ern­ments, and which poli­cies hold the most poten­tial to reduce emis­sions? In a new study in the jour­nal Urban Plan­ning we  quan­ti­fy the poten­tial of local poli­cies and pro­grams to meet aggres­sive GHG reduc­tion tar­gets using a con­sump­tion-​​based, high geospa­tial res­o­lu­tion plan­ning mod­el for the state of California.

We find that rough­ly 35% of all car­bon foot­print abate­ment poten­tial statewide is from activ­i­ties at least par­tially with­in the con­trol of local gov­ern­ments. The study shows large vari­a­tion in the size and com­po­si­tion of car­bon foot­prints and abate­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties by ∼ 23,000 Cen­sus block groups (i.e., neigh­bor­hood-​​s­cale with­in cities), 717 cities and 58 coun­ties across the state.  These data and com­pan­ion online tools can help cities bet­ter under­stand pri­or­i­ties to reduce GHGs from a com­pre­hen­sive, con­sump­tion-​​based per­spec­tive, with poten­tial appli­ca­tion to the full Unit­ed States and internationally.

For the arti­cle link, click here.