Charlottesville, Virginia, a city of 45,000 near the Appalachian Mountains, has pledged to cut carbon emissions by 45% by 2030 and be carbon neutral by 2050.
As director of the city’s Office of Sustainability, Kristel Riddervold works to achieve that goal. The office, opened in December, ensures large construction projects meet environmental standards and works to expand charging capacity for electric vehicles. It recently worked with public works officials to replace city street lights with energy efficient light bulbs.
“This is formalizing and elevating sustainability and the planet as an organizational priority,” Riddervold told ShareAmerica of the new office. While Charlottesville has long taken steps to address the climate crisis, she said “this is the kind of work where we need to all pull in the same direction.”
The United States cut greenhouse gas emissions an estimated 17% between 2005 and 2021, and the country is on pace to achieve a net-zero emissions economy by 2050.
As nations strive to meet climate goals under the Paris Agreement, the role of cities couldn’t be more important. Roughly 70% of climate pollution worldwide emanates from urban areas, according to Satya Rhodes-Conway, the mayor of Madison, Wisconsin.
“Equally important is that cities are hotbeds of innovation, and city leaders have been committed to and aggressively pursuing climate solutions for a long time,” Rhodes-Conway said in December after attending COP28, a U.N. climate conference in Dubai.
Rhodes-Conway attended COP28 as a representative of Climate Mayors, a group formed in 2014 that has mobilized 750 U.S. mayors to take meaningful action in their communities to address climate change.
“All Mayors across the country have one distinct superpower – they are the closest to the problem so thereby they are the closest to the solution,” shared our Chair @MayorBibb at a @PBS Climate Virtual Town Hall on climate innovation.
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— The Climate Mayors (@ClimateMayors) February 14, 2024
Madison, a city of 269,000 people, has been moving toward a net-zero emissions (PDF, 7.8MB) goal since 2018. In 2023, the city:
- Installed solar panels on 11 buildings, bringing the total number of solar-powered city buildings to 42.
- Added the 100th electric vehicle to its fleet of cars, buses and fire trucks.
- Launched a new air quality monitoring tool in partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
- Passed new energy efficiency guidelines for buildings across the city.
Montpelier, Vermont, America’s smallest state capital, with a population of 8,000, is working to achieve a goal of net-zero energy by 2030 (PDF, 867KB).
The city’s goal is to “lead the way as the nation’s first state capital where all of our energy needs — electric, thermal, and transportation — are produced or offset by renewable energy sources.”
Montpelier has expanded wind and solar power, and retrofits public and private buildings with geothermal energy, which uses the Earth’s steam to heat buildings. Like Charlottesville, Montpelier is installing electric vehicle (EV) charging stations to encourage EV ownership.
Riddervold, of Charlottesville, says city officials work with partners in the community to ensure its sustainability strategies are inclusive. “We have a commitment to social equity because everything about this topic affects people and not all people are affected equally.”
Follow ShareAmerica for more U.S. climate news and the State Department’s Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs for updates.
