Portland crosswalk with traffic
We did it! 100% clean and fossil-free Multnomah county buildings
Multnomah County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved a resolution ensuring all new county-owned buildings—including libraries, courthouses, and community centers—are built to be fossil-free and utilize 100% clean and renewable energy.
New Energy Cities

This Climate Solutions program is no longer active.

In 2016, Climate Solutions completed the seventh and final year of our successful New Energy Cities program. Combining research on urban carbon reduction best practices and partnering with Northwest cities and counties, we helped local communities accelerate carbon emissions reduction through climate and clean energy goal-setting, clean energy transition planning, policy development, program design, and implementation.

Our New Energy Cities program continued to work with the King County-Cities Climate Collaboration (K4C), a voluntary coalition of King County and 13 cities united in their goal to cut carbon emissions in half by 2030 supporting efforts to get underway with achieving its 90% renewable electricity by 2030. New Energy Cities formed a partnership with Stockholm Environment Institute to provide energy maps and carbon wedge analyses for Everett, WA (Snohomish County) and Olympia, WA (Thurston County). Our existing partnership with Tukwila, WA showed encouraging progress, with city leadership and staff eager to make deep carbon reductions in their community.

Climate Solutions is proud of New Energy Cities and its seven years of success. Although we phased out the program at the end of 2016, Climate Solutions will continue to help our city and county partners create political momentum to inform policy and drive carbon emissions reduction at the state and regional levels.

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Upcoming Events

Edmonds, WA Fired Up about a Clean Energy Future

At the end of January, over 60 Edmonds community leaders, including the Mayor of Edmonds Mike Cooper and Edmonds City Council President Strom Peterson, Steve Klein, General Manager of Snohomish PUD, and other business leaders and citizens rolled up their sleeves to look at how the city can reduce its greenhouse gas emissions levels to 25% below 1995 levels by 2035.

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Municipal Strategies for Carbon Emission Reduction

There is indisputable proof that the efforts of the countries that agreed to abide by the Kyoto Protocol are succeeding. In 2008, the signatory parties to the Kyoto Protocol reduced their collective greenhouse gas emissions by 6.3% below 1990 levels. In contrast, the United States’ carbon footprint in 2008 was 16% higher than 1990.

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100 Percent Renewable Energy by 2050?

Energy efficiency, unlike many renewable energy technologies, is cost-effective today. The challenges are institutional not technological or financial and therefore require rethinking our financing structures, our utility models, and the role cities can play in creating the necessary conditions for massive energy efficiency.

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Jackson, WY-- Clean Energy Pioneer

Many cities across the U.S., both large and small, are looking for economic development strategies that include home upgrades and clean energy. Jackson is proving that small towns, where the bottom line matters above all else, can innovate.

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