Chicago Climate Action Plan

An examination and exploration of the issues that the Chicago Climate Action Plan (CCAP) deals with and how they may be implemented

Municipal climate action planning continues to grow as a section of climate action planning. Global climate action planning, conducted at a country level, will not suffice to stop climate change. Rather, cities need to step up and take responsibility for their emissions by creating climate action plans of their own. This paper analyzes three climate action plans of three diverse cities: Vancouver, British Columbia; Chicago, Illinois; and Mexico City, Mexico. The study analyzes for motivations behind plan creation, effectiveness of plan created, and effects each plan has had on city greenhouse gas emissions and urban heat island effects. Finally, highlights of each plan, recognized by international organizations, are discussed in order to determine applicability to other cities.

The Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning's second Innovation + Integration summit. The issue focused on is climate change and how land use and transportation planning, energy use patterns, and economic growth all intersect to challenge planning for the future of this region.

Commissioned by the city to help create its recently released Climate Action Plan, CNT conducted the emissions and mitigation-strategies research to reach the city's emission reduction target of 25% below 1990 levels by the year 2020.

Climate change is a global problem, but the problem begins locally. Cities consume 75% of the world's energy and emit 80% of the world's greenhouse gases. Changing the way we build and operate our cities can have major effects on greenhouse gas emissions. Fortunately, communities across the U.S. are responding to the climate change problem by making plans that assess their contribution to greenhouse gas emissions and specify actions they will take to reduce these emissions. This is the first book designed to help planners, municipal staff and officials, citizens and others working at local levels to develop Climate Action Plans. CAPs are strategic plans that establish policies and programs for mitigating a community's greenhouse gas (GHGs) emissions. They typically focus on transportation, energy use, and solid waste, and often differentiate between community-wide actions and municipal agency actions. CAPs are usually based on GHG emissions inventories, which indentify the sources of emissions from the community and quantify the amounts. Additionally, many CAPs include a section addressing adaptation-how the community will respond to the impacts of climate change on the community, such as increased flooding, extended drought, or sea level rise. With examples drawn from actual plans, Local Climate Action Planning guides preparers of CAPs through the entire plan development process, identifying the key considerations and choices that must be made in order to assure that a plan is both workable and effective.