The Green Cincinnati Plan (formerly Climate Protection Action Plan), as part of Mayor Mallory's Green Cincinnati Initiative, is a roadmap for how Cincinnati can become a national leader in addressing global climate change and thus make Cincinnati a healthier place to live.
Cincinnati is one of more than 1,000 U.S. Cities that has committed to reducing its contribution to global climate change. Fortunately, the more we learn about how to combat climate change, the more we realize that climate protection measures are mostly things that we have good reason to be doing anyway. Climate protection measures can help conserve scarce natural resources, save money, enhance the local economy, improve air quality, create jobs, and improve public health. But as with so many things, there is more than one way to do it, and whether climate protection work helps or hurts our community depends on the paths that we choose.
The Green Cincinnati Plan does the following:
- Identifies over 80 specific recommendations for how to reduce contributions to global climate change. The recommended actions generally share several characteristics:
- effectively reducing green house gas emissions.
- reducing dependence on non-renewable energy sources
- saving more money than the recommended actions cost
- supporting local job creation and the local economy
- helping clean Cincinnati's air, land, and water
- relying on voluntary rather than regulatory approaches
- Quantifies annual contributions to global climate change at 8.5 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) for the City of cincinnati, and 432,000 tons of CO2e for Cincinnati City Government. At 25.5 tons per person, Cincinnati is slightly above the national average of 24.5 tons per person
- Establishes green house gas emission reduction goals of 8% within 4 years, 40% within 20 years, and 84% by 2050 (42 years).
- Presents a strategy to implement the Plan's recommendations
The full text of the Climate Protection Action Plan can be viewed on the City's website at http://www.cincinnati-oh.gov/cmgr/downloads/cmgr_pdf18280.pdf
Global Climate Change "Opportunities to Make A Difference"
