WABA community outreach tents by Joe Flood licensed under Creative Commons.

The Washington region just had its most intense September heat wave on record, and climate disasters fill our news media. If you’re looking to turn your anxiety into productive and empowering action, there are many effective local- and state-level opportunities that Washington region residents can tap into. This post provides a list of action opportunities rooted in the fact that making our cities, suburbs, and towns more livable, inclusive, and vibrant is one necessary area of climate action.

Decisions we make in places like Metropolitan Washington account for 70% of global carbon pollution

The latest United Nations “global stocktake” climate report, released last month, reminds us that urban areas, suburbs and towns play a significant role in the climate fight. What we do here in in terms of building energy efficiency – land use, transportation, and industry – makes the difference between a big carbon footprint and a lower one:

  • “The share of emissions from cities is estimated to be 67-72 percent of global emissions when using consumption-based accounting that includes indirect emissions outside urban areas.”

Cities and compact suburbs can be among the most sustainable ways to organize human activity. We know that low-density sprawl makes climate change worse, and we can see the blue areas of relatively low CO2 emissions clustered in DC and inner suburbs in the map below. The real point is that in our home communities, we can make progress that matters at a global scale.

Average Annual Household Carbon Footprint, DC Metro area, metric tons CO2 equivalent per year. Source: UC Berkeley CoolClimate Network

Smart urban planning, with housing near jobs, walking, and transit, is key

For cutting carbon pollution in our metro areas and towns, the UN technical report recommends (p. 21, emphasis added):

  • “Reducing emissions from cities will involve smart urban planning to reduce and manage waste and making cities more compact, walkable and efficient.”
  • “Local authorities and other actors may take measures to co-locate housing and jobs, as well as increase electrification and transitions to low-carbon energy sources, while increasing resilience through, for example, planting more trees.”
  • “Phasing out internal combustion engines and using electric vehicles offer the greatest mitigation potential in the [transportation] sector. In addition, demand-side interventions, such as shifting transport modes (e.g. to walking and using public transport), will be essential in the context of rethinking mobility.”

A year ago, the UN Emissions Gap report likewise included these on its shortlist. That report also warned against further “car-centred city or regional planning” that locks in decades of carbon pollution. Rapidly improving the energy efficiency of buildings is also a critical area emphasized in both reports.

Where Washington region residents can take local climate action this fall

Time to put down the doom-scrolling devices, and get to work. Here’s a sampling of active campaigns by the Coalition for Smarter Growth (an advocacy organization that shares many goals with Greater Greater Washington) and other local advocates where you can make a difference:

Making cities more compact, walkable, and efficient:

Co-locating housing and jobs:

Shifting transport modes:

Other ways to take action: