Thomas Reuters Foundation News | Sebastien Malo, July 26, 2019 Many U.S. cities cannot measure climate emissions progress
American cities including Atlanta, Miami and New Orleans that set goals to slash planet-warming greenhouse emissions are lacking the data to measure their progress, scientists said in a new report. Some 40% of U.S. cities that committed to cutting emissions are unable to assess their programs because costly tallies of their emissions are inadequate, said the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE), a non-profit organization. “City resources are always tight,” said David Ribeiro, the report’s lead author and a senior research manager at ACEEE. The lack of data could also be due to emission-cutting goals having only recently been adopted, or to insufficient political will, Ribeiro said. Of the 75 cities surveyed, just over 20% had pledged to cut emissions and were able to measure advances with recently produced evidence. Cities account for two-thirds of the world’s energy demand and 70% of energy-related emissions, the report said, citing cited International Energy Agency data.
