{"id":856031,"date":"2025-06-16T19:12:44","date_gmt":"2025-06-17T00:12:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/16\/mayors-are-making-climate-action-personal-its-working\/"},"modified":"2025-06-16T19:12:44","modified_gmt":"2025-06-17T00:12:44","slug":"mayors-are-making-climate-action-personal-its-working","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/16\/mayors-are-making-climate-action-personal-its-working\/","title":{"rendered":"Mayors are making climate action personal. It\u2019s working."},"content":{"rendered":"
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In the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic, Justin Bibb was living in a tight, one-bedroom apartment in Cleveland, Ohio. He couldn\u2019t open his windows because his home was an old office building converted to residential units \u2014 not exactly conducive to physical and mental well-being in the middle of a global crisis. So he sought refuge elsewhere: a large green space, down near the lakefront, that he could stroll to.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately,\u201d Bibb said, \u201cthat\u2019s not the case for many of our residents in the city of Cleveland.\u201d<\/p>\n

A native of Cleveland, Bibb was elected the 58th mayor of the city in 2021. Immediately after taking office, he took inspiration from the \u201c15-minute city\u201d concept of urban design, an idea that envisions people reaching their daily necessities \u2014 work, grocery stores, pharmacies \u2014 within 15 minutes by walking, biking, or taking public transit. That reduces dependence on cars, and also slashes carbon emissions and air pollution. In Cleveland, Bibb\u2019s goal is to put all residents within a 10-minute walk of a green space by the year 2045, by converting abandoned lots to parks and other efforts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb looks out from City Hall in Cleveland, Ohio, on Wednesday, July 27, 2022.
\n Sarah Rice \/ The Washington Post via Getty Images<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Cleveland is far from alone in its quest to adapt to a warming climate. As American cities have grown in size and population and gotten hotter, they \u2014 not the federal government \u2014 have become crucibles for climate action: Cities are electrifying their public transportation, forcing builders to make structures more energy efficient, and encouraging rooftop solar. Together with ambitious state governments<\/a>, hundreds of cities<\/a> large and small are pursuing climate action plans \u2014 documents that lay out how they will reduce emissions and adapt to extreme weather \u2014 with or without support from the feds. Cleveland\u2019s plan<\/a>, for instance, calls for all its commercial and residential buildings to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For local leaders, climate action has grown all the more urgent since the Trump administration has been boosting fossil fuels and threatening to sue states to roll back environmental regulations<\/a>. Last week, Republicans in the House passed a budget bill<\/a> that would end nearly all the clean energy tax credits from the Biden administration\u2019s signature climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act. \u201cBecause Donald Trump is in the White House again, it\u2019s going to be up to mayors and governors to really enact and sustain the momentum around addressing climate change at the local level,\u201d said Bibb, who formerly chaired Climate Mayors, a bipartisan group of nearly 350 mayors.<\/p>\n

City leaders can move much faster than federal agencies, and are more in-tune with what their people actually want, experts said. \u201cThey\u2019re on the ground and they\u2019re hearing from their residents every day, so they have a really good sense of what the priorities are,\u201d said Kate Johnson, regional director for North America at C40 Cities, a global network of nearly 100 mayors fighting climate change. \u201cYou see climate action really grounded in the types of things that are going to help people.\u201d<\/p>\n

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” data-credit=”Dustin Franz for The Washington Post via Getty Images”><\/p>

The Environmental Protection Agency gave a $129 million grant to Cuyahoga County, where Cleveland is located, to deploy climate solutions, like turning this landfill into a solar farm.
Dustin Franz for The Washington Post via Getty Images<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Shifting from a reliance on fossil fuels to clean energy isn\u2019t just about reducing a city\u2019s carbon emissions, but about creating jobs and saving money \u2014 a tangible argument that mayors can make to their people. Bibb said a pilot program in Cleveland that helped low- to moderate-income households get access to free solar panels ended up reducing their utility bills by 60 percent<\/a>. The biggest concern for Americans right now isn\u2019t climate change, Bibb added. \u201cIt\u2019s the cost of living, and so we have to marry these two things together,\u201d he said. \u201cI think mayors are in a very unique position to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

To further reduce costs and emissions, cities like Seattle<\/a> and Washington, D.C.<\/a> are scrambling to better insulate structures, especially affordable housing, by installing double-paned windows and better insulation. In Boston last year, the city government started an Equitable Emissions Investment Fund<\/a>, which awards money for projects that make buildings more efficient or add solar panels to their roofs. \u201cWe are in a climate where energy efficiency remains the number one thing that we can do,\u201d said Oliver Sellers-Garcia, commissioner of the environment and Green New Deal director in the Boston government. \u201cAnd there are so many other comfort and health benefits from being in an efficient, all-electric environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

To that end, cities are deploying loads of heat pumps, hyper-efficient appliances that warm and cool a space<\/a>. New York City, for instance, is spending $70 million to install 30,000 of the appliances<\/a> in its public housing. The ultimate goal is to have as many heat pumps as possible running in energy-efficient homes \u2014 along with replacing gas stoves with induction ranges \u2014 and drawing electricity from renewables.<\/p>\n

Metropolises like Los Angeles<\/a> and Pittsburgh<\/a> are creating new green spaces, which reduce urban temperatures<\/a> and soak up rainwater to prevent flooding<\/a>. A park is a prime example of \u201cmultisolving\u201d: one intervention that fixes a bunch of problems at once. Another is deploying electric vehicle chargers in underserved neighborhoods, as Cleveland is doing<\/a>, and making their use free for residents. This encourages the adoption of those vehicles, which reduces carbon emissions and air pollution. That, in turn, improves public health in those neighborhoods, which tend to have a higher burden of pollution than richer areas.<\/p>\n

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