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Chicago’s Climate Action Plan

11am, July 20th, 2015

Chicago’s Climate Action Plan addresses both mitigation of and adaptation to climate change and encompasses the entire city (rather than only City operations). The plan contains a high-level overview of Chicago’s climate action initiatives, including 26 mitigation strategies and nine adaptation strategies.

Today, Chicago is one of the world’s greenest and most livable cities, thanks to strong partnerships between government, residents and businesses. It leads the way from green roofs to green buildings and policies and has become the nation’s laboratory for studying ways to reduce the “urban heat island” effect, which can raise a city’s temperature 4 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit on hot summer days. Its extensive public transit system offers a low-cost, energy-efficient alternative to solo driving. The bicycling program has produced more bike parking than any other U.S. city and 165 miles of bike­ ways. The Green Homes and other programs help families save thousands of dollars through energy efficiency.

The past 15 years have also seen a tremendous growth in our understanding of climate change and the important role that cities can play in addressing it. This worldwide threat to our planet demands an encompassing plan from every city, state and nation and action from every resident and business to reduce emissions of heat-trapping gases and to ensure a good quality of life for future generations.

It was with that charge in mind that Mayor Daley created a multi-stakeholder task force to produce a Chicago Climate Action Plan (CCAP). The Task Force created a Plan that:

  • Determines the challenges we face as our climate changes
  • Describes the sources of our greenhouse gas emissions
  • Sets goals to reduce our emissions and adapt to changes already affecting us
  • Finds ways to leverage our knowledge to improve our economy and quality of life
  • Outlines concrete, achievable goals for all those who make Chicago their home

Read the Action Plan here: Climate Change Action Plan

For more information on the Action Plan, visit the website.

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