HOUSTON: FROM BENCHWARMER TO BENCHMARKER

By Charles Stillman, Citizens League for Environmental Action Now

Lacking leadership from the federal government, cities and local municipalities have taken it upon themselves to confront the issue of climate change in their own communities. Initiatives such as the US Mayor’s Climate Protection Agreement (USMCPA), the Sierra Club’s Cool Cities, and the International Council on Local Environmental Initiatives’ Cities for Climate Protection have been launched to formalize cities’ global warming reduction efforts.

More than ten cities in Texas have joined one or more of these efforts to reduce emissions. Support from Texas cities is important because the state emits nearly twice as much carbon dioxide as any other state in the US. Some cities are worried about the long-term consequences of climate change, including the potential rise in number and intensity of natural disasters (droughts, floods, hurricanes). Other cities recognize that efforts to reduce greenhouse gases invariably lead to financial savings and cleaner air.

On Friday, June 30, more than twenty officials from all over Texas, including the mayors of Austin, Dallas, and Plano, met at the University of Texas-Arlington to take part in the Texas Cities for Climate Protection forum. Climate and health experts discussed the benefits of addressing climate change, while city leaders exchanged thoughts on various emission-reduction methods. Officials agreed to join forces to resist efforts by TXU to build eleven new coal-fired power plants in the state. Coal plants are responsible for 88 percent of carbon dioxide, 93 percent of nitrogen oxides, 96 percent of sulfur dioxides, and 99 percent of mercury emissions from all power plants.

Officials from Houston did not make an appearance at the forum, but pledged to finance studies to determine the air-quality effects of the proposed coal-fired power plants. As the mayors met in Arlington, Houston mayor Bill White announced that the city had formally agreed to address its greenhouse gas emissions by joining the International Council on Local Environmental Initiatives and becoming a member of Cities for Climate Protection.

ICLEI is an international group of local governments and associations committed to sustainable development. As a participant in the CCP, the city will commit to carry out five performance milestones, reports Karl Pepple, director of Environmental Programming for the City of Houston. In cooperation with ICLEI, Houston will conduct an emissions inventory, develop emissions reductions targets, adopt and implement an action plan to reduce emissions, and monitor the progress of attaining the targets. Pepple says these efforts will only apply to city operations initially, though emissions for the entire Houston region could eventually be included.

“What we’ll be doing is helping Houston implement actions to reduce global warming and then helping the city to track its work using our software to quantify the results,” explains Susan Ode, outreach officer for ICLEI USA.

Mayor White has already instituted a number of programs to reduce the city’s carbon footprint. More than 250 hybrid vehicles have been purchased for city employees. New city buildings are built according to LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) specifications to reduce energy use. Incentives are offered to city contractors to use clean construction equipment. Houston has subsidized city employees’ use of METRO, coordinated stop lights, and promoted carpooling in an effort to reduce traffic congestion and thereby vehicle emissions. The city has also been evaluating and attempting to refine its emissions reduction plan, and for the first time has added carbon dioxide to its emissions inventory.

Despite the city’s efforts, a growing number of groups and individuals have been calling on Mayor White to make a formal commitment to address climate change. Many hope that the city will join the US Mayor’s Climate Protection Agreement, which calls for signatories to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 7 percent below 1990 levels by 2012.

A group called Houstonians for Global Warming Action has formed in recent months with the sole purpose of persuading Mayor White to sign the USMCPA. They have created an online petition where Houstonians can co-sign a letter urging the mayor to take action. The current list of US cities signing the USMCPA includes Dallas, Austin, Arlington, Sugar Land, and five other Texas towns. However, efforts to persuade Houston to sign have been met with resistance.

When asked to explain the mayor’s reasons for not signing, Pepple replies, “The City is interested in taking real steps toward reducing greenhouse gases, not just signing something about what should be done.” He is referring to the USMCPA’s non-binding nature. Participants in the agreement are merely called upon to “strive to meet or exceed Kyoto Protocol targets.” The city has also been critical of the USMCPA because it lacks any formal benchmarks by which to document progress.

Proponents of the USMCPA, such as Brandt Mannchen from the Houston Regional Group of the Sierra Club, argue that the USMCPA is only an ineffectual pledge if the signatories choose to treat it as such by not following through with concrete actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in their communities. The City of Seattle, which took the lead in the US Mayor’s Climate Protection Agreement, reports that it has reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by more than 60 percent of its 1990 levels. Mannchen admits he’s a bit confounded by Houston’s resistance to signing the US Mayor’s agreement and hopes one day the city will come around.

Pepple says the City of Houston has no intention at this point of joining the Sierra Club’s Cool Cities campaign, which asks participants both to sign the USMCPA and also to fulfill the requirements of ICLEI’s Cities for Climate Protection.

In late May of this year, Louis Smith of the Houston Climate Protection Alliance (HCPA) sat down with Pepple and Elena Marks, the city’s director of Public Health, to discuss options for Houston to pursue, including membership in ICLEI’s CCP. Smith says the officials were already familiar with ICLEI’s program and exhibited a good understanding of the issues as well as a genuine desire to take action. He commends the mayor’s recent action saying, “I think Mayor White’s signing the ICLEI climate agreement reflects his strong commitment to doing something about climate change.” White’s refusal to sign the USMCPA is not a big surprise to Smith. He says it “typifies his character as mayor, in that he chooses to do things where there are clear benchmarks and performance standards.”

Despite weighing in late, Houston city officials seem ready to take action on climate change. “Bravo to the City of Houston,” says Nan Hildreth, co-founder of Houston Climate Protection Alliance. “Now eleven Texas cities, including every major Texas city, have pledged to protect the climate. Pepple reveals that the city’s first act as a member of the program will be to conduct a baseline inventory of city emissions, which it intends to have completed by the end the fiscal year. The Sierra Club’s Brandt Mannchen hopes that Houston officials will soon move beyond the city’s immediate operations and take account of greenhouse gas emissions throughout the Houston area.

To see a list of the 266 US cities and towns that, as of July 14, have responded to Seattle mayor Greg Nickelsí challenge to adopt the goals of the Kyoto Protocol, go to the mayor’s website.

A current list of the 261 members in Canada and the United States of Cities for Climate Protection can be found at ICLEI’s website.

Citizens’ League for Environmental Action Now has a website at http://cleanhouston.org.