US mayors falling short of environment commitments
Posted by DavidM in Green Politics | 14 January 2008
It was some time ago that we had the encouraging news that despite George W Bush's federal government failing to acknowldedge climate change, many local mayors had come together and committed to make changes to reduce carbon emissions and their cities' impact on the environment.
Over 600 mayors eventually signed up to meet or beat the targets set in the Kyoto protocol.
However, while there is some good progress - such as New York's hybrid taxi - some have done little. The Voice of San Diego's article features Chula Vista mayor Morris Vance who vaguely remembers signing it and asked city staff to "come back with some recommendations," though that hasn't happened. Great leadership skills on show there.
This is disappointing but not really surprising. There are cities really taking environmental damage seriously and making great strides in the vacuum left by central government. But every bandwagon has free-loaders and it would be great to have more articles like Rob Davis' to expose those who renege on their promise.
