在西雅图，学生们用他们的太阳能电池板来应对气候变化。(Courtesy of 350.org)

根据林斯特罗斯的研究结果，虽然地方性的应对气候变化措施各有不同，但是成功的举措都有这样一些共同特征：州长和市长的有力领导；明确的目标；专用资源以及企业和居民的参与。

已经为人们所认识的地方上的最佳做法包括：

• 有利于提高能源效率的建筑物标准规则。
• 投资公共交通以减少人们开车上下班带来的排放。
• 促进再生能源资源的利用。
• 采用减少浪费和降低水耗的设计。
• 提高城市发展密度，保留农田和绿地。
• 回收垃圾。 

• 成本和收益

  地方性的做法获得了很多成功：

  • 美国大多数州都有气候行动计划和对电力企业必须利用一定比例的可再生能源发电的规定。
  • 拥有近9000万居民的1000多个美国城市签署了《美国市长气候保护协议》（U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement）。
  • 西雅图已于2008年达到了《京都议定书》的规定目标。俄勒冈州波特兰市、纽约市(New York)、旧金山(San Francisco)、波士顿(Boston)、芝加哥(Chicago)以及其他一些都市中心都被列为美国和世界上最环保的城市。

  2015年年初，奥巴马政府将16个美国社区定为“气候行动旗手”(climate action champions)，并为它们的努力提供支持。这些社区和更多社区之所以采取行动，是因为它们面临海平面上升或是由全球变暖所产生的其他自然灾害的威胁。对于那些对气候变化心存疑虑的纽约居民来说，2012年的飓风“桑迪”(Hurricane Sandy)成为一个强有力的警告。

  在谈到纽约市对气候变化所作出的努力时，纽约市市长白思豪(Bill de Blasio)向《美国科学》(Scientific American)杂志表示，“如果我们现在还不清醒的话，再下去就为时太晚了”。

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  飓风“桑迪”过后的纽约市成为气候变化的见证。 (© AP Images)

  但是，即便是一些资源有限的小城镇和村庄也在力争有所作为。F.科德·班菲德(F. Kaid Benfield)在《赫芬顿邮报》(Huffington Post)上撰文说，利用私人资助或政府贷款，它们在可持续发展方面的努力足以与那些大城市相媲美。

  威斯康星州的哥伦布市(Columbus, Wisconsin)仅有5015位居民，但它已经建成了高效LED路灯照明、混合动力市政车队、市政停车场充电站、能源效率审计，并且对房主植树提供财政奖励。佛罗里达州的南戴托纳市(South Daytona, Florida)拥有人口12279，该城市一直重视实现市政设施的节能，在消防队安装了太阳能热水器，并对员工开展节约使用能源教育。

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  在被一场龙卷风摧毁七年之后，堪萨斯州的格林斯堡市(Greensburg,Kansas)在市长鲍勃‧迪克森(Bob Dixson)的领导下建成为一个100％的绿色环保城镇。(© AP Images)

  许多市长和市政议会都认识到，绿色环保可以带动经济发展。

  西雅图市长尼克尔斯在与在线杂志Grist的访谈中说，“但你必须参与进来，你必须接受变化即将来临这一事实，然后让企业家们来解决如何创造绿色就业机会的问题。”

  在哥伦布市开始宣传它的环保信誉之后，数百万美元的资本投资源源而来。这一“意外之财”资助了一个新的住宅开发项目、一家养老院并扩大了包装和制泵业务。一个艺术育新机构也选择了在哥伦布而不是在威斯康星州的其他城市落户。

  地方行动事关重大

  尽管一些批评人士认为全国性的政策可能具有更大的影响力，但其实市一级的政策和计划经常被整个州和地区所采纳。西雅图激发了整个华盛顿州（Washington）对气候变化作出努力，而旧金山则为加利福尼亚州(California)成为美国应对气候变化的带头人奠定了基础。

  有些州拥有更强的经济实力。当人口最多、经济产值仅低于世界七个国家的加利福尼亚州采用更严格的标准时，会引起其他各州和整个产业的关注。例如，加州于2012年通过标准，要求到2025年在该州销售的新车中有七分之一是电动或其他类型的零排放汽车，并要求届时必须将温室气体排放量减少50%。有七个州随后也采用了这些标准。加州在更早以前出台的清洁汽车法规，带动了汽车行业在排放控制技术方面的创新。

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  洛杉矶通勤者的日常经历。 (Courtesy of Jeff Turner/Flickr)

  在美国，诸如《西部气候倡议》(Western Climate Initiative)、《区域温室气体倡议》(Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative)以及《交通和气候倡议》(Transportation and Climate Initiative)等多阶段行动计划，提高了环保政策的影响力。城市通过《美国市长气候保护协议》，也采取了同样的行动。如今，大约有450个美国的市县加入了世界范围的地方政府气候网络。

  哥伦比亚大学地球研究所(Earth Institute at Columbia University)的经济学家兼所长杰弗里·萨克斯(Jeffrey Sachs)表示，由于城市温室气体排放至少占温室气体污染总量的一半，它们的行动可能会决定对抗全球变暖的最终结果。
  
  

  在2014年举行的联合国气候问题峰会上，世界各地2000个城市根据全球性的《市长契约》(Compact of Mayors)，对为应对气候变化采取行动作出了新的承诺。

  联合国特使及前纽约市市长迈克尔·布隆伯格(Michael Bloomberg)指出，城市有决心引领应对气候变化的行动。他说：“城市可以帮助国家设定新的、必要的和积极的温室气体目标”。

  这是因为，归根结蒂，气候变化是一个要求全球一起行动的全球问题。
  
  

  The key to solving climate change may be in your hometown

  When Greg Nickels became mayor of Seattle in 2002, global warming wasn’t on his agenda.

  He believed that “climate change was something that was off in the future and would happen to other places first.”

  “I was wrong,” Nickels said later.

  In 2005, he learned that climate change is disrupting the role of glaciers as natural reservoirs, storing water in the winter and releasing it as the ice melts in the summer, according to Seattle-based journalist Jonathan Hiskes. But with rising temperatures causing glaciers to shrink, water shortages could occur much sooner than anticipated, Nickels was told. Since the city draws much of its electricity from hydropower, this also threatened to cause an energy crisis.

  For Nickels it was a wake-up call. He enlisted mayors of 141 other cities and later that year launched the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement. The agreement called on signatories to meet or exceed in their own communities the greenhouse gas (GHG) emission targets set for the U.S. in the Kyoto Protocol, an international climate treaty. Nickels traveled around the world to spread the message that many U.S. cities were prepared to move against climate change.

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  In Seattle, students combat climate change with their solar panels. (Courtesy of 350.org)

  City as policy lab

  In the United States, change and innovation often occur at the local level. U.S. cities frequently serve as policy labs and develop innovative programs through trial and error.

  Local governments are well-suited to fix environmental problems for several reasons, say Tommy Linstroth and Ryan Bell in their book Local Action: The New Paradigm in Climate Change Policy. Cities make their own policies and control budgets, which makes them more agile and efficient than national or international institutions.

  In the past decade, leading U.S. communities started experimenting with urban and environmental policies. They sought to attack climate change, but also to improve air quality, lessen traffic congestion, and secure energy supply and reliability. Communities employed regulations, incentives, investments and public outreach to implement their environmental plans.

  Some local efforts have failed. But those that succeeded have been adopted by other localities, and improve the environment in an entire state or region. For example, some cities have adopted at least parts of Portland, Oregon’s “smart-growth” strategy to arrest suburban sprawl and its consequences — air pollution from cars and the loss of farmland and open spaces.
  
  

  Local approaches to climate change differ, but the successful ones commonly feature strong leadership by governors and mayors, well-defined goals, dedicated resources, and engaged businesses and residents, according to Linstroth.

  Local efforts have identified a number of best practices:

  • Building codes that favor energy efficiency.
  • Investment in public transportation to curb emissions from commuter cars.
  • Promotion of renewable energy resources.
  • Designs to cut waste and reduce water consumption.
  • Increased density of urban development to preserve farmland and green spaces.
  • Trash recycling.
     

    Costs and benefits

    The local approach boasts many successes:

    • A majority of U.S. states have climate action plans and mandates for electric utilities to generate a specified amount of electricity from renewable sources.
    • Over 1,000 U.S. cities with nearly 90 million residents have signed the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement.  
    • Seattle achieved the Kyoto Protocol goals in 2008. Portland, Oregon; New York; San Francisco; Boston; Chicago and other urban centers are listed among the greenest cities in America and the world.

    Earlier in 2015, the Obama administration designated 16 U.S. communities as “climate action champions” and offered support for their efforts. These and other communities took action because they face rising seas or other global warming-produced natural disasters. Hurricane Sandy in 2012 was a powerful warning for New Yorkers doubting climate change.

    “If we don’t get it right now,” New York Mayor Bill de Blasio told Scientific Americanmagazine, referring to his city’s climate effort, ”at some point it will be too late.”

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    New York after Hurricane Sandy: a proving ground for climate-change forensics (© AP Images)

    But even small towns and villages with limited resources strive to make a difference. Using private grants or government loans, they undertake sustainability efforts significant enough to rival those of big cities, writes F. Kaid Benfield in the Huffington Post.

    Columbus, Wisconsin, with 5,015 residents, can boast high-efficiency LED street lighting, hybrid electric municipal vehicles, plug-in stations at municipal parking lots, energy-efficiency audits and financial incentives for homeowners to plant trees. South Daytona, Florida, population 12,279, has focused on energy conservation in municipal facilities, installing a solar water heater in the fire department and educating staff about energy usage.

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    Seven years after being devastated by a tornado, Greensburg, Kansas, was rebuilt as a 100-percent green town under the leadership of Mayor Bob Dixson. (© AP Images)

    Many mayors and city councils have discovered that going green can spur economic development.

    “But you’ve got to be in the game, you have to embrace the fact that this change is going to occur, and then put entrepreneurs to work figuring out how to create green jobs,” Nickels said in an interview with Grist, an online magazine.

    After Columbus started marketing its green credentials, millions of dollars in capital investment poured into the city. The windfall funded a new housing development, an assisted living center, and the expansion of packaging and pump-manufacturing operations. An arts incubator chose Columbus over other Wisconsin cities.

    Local action matters

    While some critics say nationwide policies could have a bigger impact, city level policies and programs are often adopted by entire states and regions. Seattle inspired a statewide climate effort throughout Washington state, and San Francisco paved California’s way to climate-change leadership in the U.S.

    Some states have more economic power than others. When California, the most populous state, and one who’s economy is exceeded only by 7 nations, adopts stricter standards, other states and entire industries pay attention. For example, in 2012, California passed standards that require one in seven of the new cars sold in the state in 2025 be an electric or other zero-emission vehicle and mandate a 50-percent reduction in GHG emissions. Since then, seven other states have adopted those standards. Earlier, California’s regulations for cleaner cars helped spur the auto industry’s innovations in emission-control technology.

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    Another day in the lives of Los Angeles commuters (Courtesy of Jeff Turner/Flickr)

    In the U.S. multistage initiatives like Western Climate Initiative, Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and Transportation and Climate Initiative increase the impact of enviornment-friendly policies. Cities do the same through the mayors’ agreement. Today around 450 U.S. cities and counties also participate in worldwide local-government climate networks.

    As cities are responsible for at least half of all GHG pollution, their actions may determine the ultimate outcome of the fight against global warming, says Jeffrey Sachs, an economist and director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University。 
    
    

    At a 2014 U.N. summit, 2,000 world cities pledged new commitments on climate action under a global Compact of Mayors.

    U.N. Special Envoy and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg observed that cities are determined to lead the response to climate change.

    “They can help nations set new, necessary and aggressive GHG targets,” he said.

    Because, ultimately, climate change is a global problem that will demand global action.