Until real and actionable climate and energy policies emerge at the national level in the United States, the burden of addressing sustainable climate and energy work will fall on the shoulders of local and regional authorities. The central role that local governments are likely to play, offer several positive opportunities for dealing with climate change and bridging differences in the transatlantic environmental relationship. It also introduces substantial challenges that require thoughtful consideration and attention.
Cities and Regions as Leaders in Implementing Sustainable Climate and Energy Policies
Opportunities to promote long-term cooperation include the common challenges that US and German cities and metropolitan regions confront in addressing climate change, energy, mobility, habitat, and economic development. In both countries local authorities are the true first-responders to climate change. Approximately 70 percent of greenhouse gas emissions emanate from the transportation and building sectors - sectors that are intricately tied to land-use management and therefore, heavily dependent on oversight and involvement of local authorities. Moreover, most German cities such as Freiburg, Stuttgart, or Hamburg offer their US colleagues a wealth of lessons in applying multimodal transportation systems, energy-efficient housing, renewable energies and other "green" buildings programs.
Buildings
Energy-efficient housing and buildings offer exceptional opportunities in which German cities can share lessons with their American counterparts. (...) Germany's experiences with energy labels, publicly financed low-interest loans and performance standards can positively inform US energy efficiency efforts in the building sector.
Transportation
Transportation is the other critical variable in the climate puzzle and accounts for approximately 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in most US and German cities. Recent studies now suggest that the new federal fleet fuel economy increase to 35 miles per gallon for cars and light trucks alone is unlikely to cut emissions of CO2 from mobile sources over the long-term as vehicles miles traveled are likely to increase. Even as gas prices go beyond $4.00 per gallon and ridership in public transit increases, local authorities in the US will have no choice but to continue to integrate land-use and transportation into climate and energy planning efforts. Here again, German cities can inform their US counterparts. In many German cities and regions, it is common to see 50 percent of trips taken on public transit, bikes, or walking. By comparison, leading regions in the US, such as Washington, D.C. seldom crack 20 percent of trips on public transit, bike or foot.
Renewable Energy
Germany is not only a pioneer in the development of solar, wind and renewable heating and cooling energy systems. Germany also is a leader in planning mixed-use, transit-oriented development, with applications of renewable energies in large-scale and geographically defined districts - what is now recognized as community energy planning. Local authorities in the United States often struggle to create actionable energy and climate plans because they lack sufficient consideration of scale beyond the level of the individual house, building or street. US cities can take advantage of the community energy planning lessons from cities such as Mannheim, Stuttgart and Berlin.
Formalizing Cooperation
Formalizing cooperation between local authorities in Germany and the US can start with sustained and focused searches, reviews and analysis of German climate and energy policies. Evidence is emerging that suggests learning by local governments in the US is enhanced when the local policymakers have access to information about the content and performance of the imported policies. The same evidence points to accelerated transfer of imported policies into the US when policymakers assess adoption potential. Such an effort is currently underway between the Northern Virginia Regional Commission and counterpart regional planning councils in Stuttgart and Hamburg. A declaration of cooperation on climate and energy has been signed and a long-term cooperative climate and energy policy transfer project is now being implemented. The goal of the cooperation is to inform development and implementation of Northern Virginia's community-energy and climate planning by drawing from the experiences and success of parallel efforts in Hamburg, Stuttgart and other German cities. Given current trends affecting national-level climate and energy policies in the United States, substantive action seems unlikely over the short and possibly long-term. In the interim, the serious work to address climate and energy in the US is to be seen among local authorities. Fortunately, this also happens to be the level at which the US and Germany can pursue very solid and mutually beneficial cooperation.
Dale Medearis, Ph.D., is the senior environmental planner for the Northern Virginia Regional Commission. He supervises the Commission's climate and energy programs, and its international partnerships with Europe.
This article was written for the Forum for Atlantic Climate and Energy Talks (FACET) and was first published here. FACET has granted atlantic-community.org permission to publish a shortened version.
Related materials from the Atlantic Community:
- Michaele Schreyer & Ralph Fuecks: The Next Big Project for the EU is Energy
- Casey S. Butterfield: For Transatlantic Future, Look Beyond Heads of State
- Samuel Thernstrom: Resetting Earth's Thermostat
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September 26, 2008
Tadeu Caldas
One interesting publication in Germany by the Ministry of Environment ,targeted at educating the consumer, was a small pocket guide for CO2 impacts of everything a houselhold manager is in touch with, domestic appliances, groceries and other items of shopping, local travel, etc. with comparisons for different products such as home grown organic against imported, organic against conventional butter, seasonal x out-of-season fruits and vegetables. These publication should go down further to the level of schools.
This is an example of what could be exchanged in terms of practical solutions. References of succesful urban energy planning is of course also important. But everything counts. Looking at the new report recently published by the Global Carbon Project there is a lot to do, and maybe these type of local government exchanges should eventually include countries such as the 'BRICS' Group of emerging countries and others. Obviously since the US is still by far the largest polluter, any success in bilateral cooperation with the EU is a big bonus.
The more horizontality we manage to achieve in terms of local solutions and decisions x top-down federal ones, the better, since it is these type of policy and actions have a better chance at implementation in a sustainable basis.
So I welcome the discussion on transatlantic cooperation on climate policy at other levels than federal government, until leaders realise they have no option but to do the right thing.