The Covid Recovery Must Begin With Climate Action
Date Posted: December 29, 2020
Posted In: COVID-19 Updates, Discussion,
From Bloomberg CityLab: Global pandemics and deadly climate disasters should be once-in-a-generation crises. But in 2020, U.S. mayors from coast to coast have been forced to confront both.
New Orleans experienced its busiest hurricane season since 2005: Five hurricanes made landfall in Louisiana, and frequent rain storms flooded the streets of New Orleans. Meanwhile, Boston experienced one of its hottest, driest summers on record, while the fall brought flooding in some of our most densely populated neighborhoods.
Our cities weren’t alone: Phoenix saw a record number of heat-related deaths; Portland, Oregon, experienced its worst-ever air quality as wildfires raged on the West Coast; and Miami faced destructive high tides as sea levels continue to rise.
For mayors, the effects of climate change are a reality that we deal with every single day. It means downed power lines, blocked roads, flooded basements, crowded shelters and hospitals, and people who are scared. It is an immediate threat to the health and safety of our residents. And because of the disproportionate impact it has on low-income communities and people of color, it is one of the most pressing social justice issues that we face.
Absent any leadership from the climate-denying Trump administration, cities have been leading the charge to stop climate change on our own — through coalitions like the Climate Mayors, C40, and the Urban Sustainability Directors Network — to spearhead bold efforts at the local level.
Boston and New Orleans, two diverse coastal cities separated by 1,500 miles, have been hard at work taking action at the local level. When the Trump administration withdrew from the Paris Agreement, we remained committed to its carbon reduction goals, by raising the emissions standards for our buildings, investing in green jobs, and focusing on sustainable mobility, like walking, biking, and public transit. We’ve also been aggressively preparing for future climate impacts, by strengthening our public health response to heat waves, and protecting our coastlines from rising sea levels and intensifying storms. The value of sustainability is embedded in everything we do at the city level: from how we design our streets to where we build our parks to what kind of job training programs we fund.