If Trump won't step up on climate, cities will

至少在环境圈子里，这是每个人现在都在想的问题。我们实际上希望在接下来的四年中取得什么样的进步，当时华盛顿特区的下一个政府和国会似乎准备好并渴望阻止我们的使命？

The answer is: Plenty.

While it’s certainly easier to accomplish things with an administration that shares our philosophy and supports our efforts, we’ve been around long enough to know that our work must, can and will be done regardless of who’s occupying the White House.

We also know that the goals of stopping climate change, protecting wild lands, fostering clean energy and protecting public health are shared by tens of millions of people across this country, regardless of political ideology or party affiliation. Fortunately, this group includes many leaders at the city, state and regional levels. In the wake of what’s likely to be a significantly weakened federal response to the biggest environmental challenges of our time, local leaders are poised to emerge as some of our most creative and innovative champions of sustainability.

What kind of progress can we realistically hope to make over the next four years?

A case in point: theCity Energy Project，NRDC和市场转型研究所的联合倡议。This groundbreaking and still-growing initiative boasts 20 cities — including 10just added (PDF)to the list two weeks ago — that are dedicating themselves to addressing the single biggest source of energy use and climate pollution: buildings.

If the buildings of the U.S. were considered a nation unto themselves, they would rank third in worldwide energy consumption. Now, through the pursuit of aggressive energy efficiency measures inside these buildings, members of the City Energy Project are committing to reducing their cities’ collective carbon pollution by nearly 10 million metric tons by 2030 — an amount equivalent to taking 2 million cars off the road for an entire year.

The mayors of these cities well understand what one of their own, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, hasobserved：我们的城市中心“是解决世界上许多最大挑战的关键，包括气候变化。全球70％的温室气体排放来自城市，它们也带来了最大的行动机会。”

That’s why these mayors — whose cities are the economic anchors of blue states, red states and swing states alike — aren't waiting to see how things "play out" in Washington: They’ve opted to make history rather than merely react to it.

在匹兹堡，市长威廉·佩杜托（William Peduto）宣布，到2030年，他的城市将减少其能源使用，用水和运输的排放 - 并引用匹兹堡在城市能源项目中的合作伙伴关系，这是帮助它实现这一目标的关键因素。好用的买球外围app网站亚特兰大市市长卡西姆·里德（Kasim Reed）不仅认为这项倡议不仅可以减少他的家乡的能量和用水，而且还认为整个东南地区的整个东南地区 - 亚特兰大是文化和经济枢纽。

How and why does it work so well? By tailoring a plan built to the scale and needs of participating cities, the project is able to maximize the energy efficiency and energy performance of each city’s building stock. As the largest public and private-sector buildings typically account for a disproportionately large share of a city’s energy use and carbon pollution, it makes sense to start there. But the strategy necessarily extends to the forging of relationships with developers, building owners, building managers, institutional leaders and other stakeholders — all of whom can be made to see the direct correlation between cutting energy use, cutting carbon emissions and cutting costs.

作为最大的建筑物通常是城市能源使用和碳污染的不成比例的份额，从那里开始是有意义的。

用KRESGE基金会（城市能源项目合作伙伴）总裁兼首席执行官Rip Rapson的话说：“不仅消耗的每个能量单位不仅可以减少温室气体的排放，而且还会减少能源成本曲线。”

This correlation is crucial to the project’s overall effectiveness: There’s not a mayor in any U.S. city — small, medium-size or mega — that doesn’t thrill to the prospect of lowering administrative costs, or of passing those savings to taxpayers. And when you can tell your constituents that you’re also lowering carbon pollution into the bargain, you’re reinforcing the proven connection between these two kinds of efficiency — and helping to erase the political and ideological lines that needlessly separate people when it comes to fighting climate change.

So far, six of the 20 City Energy Project cities have implemented energy-efficiency policies that cover nearly 12,000 buildings, representing more than 2.3 billion square feet of space. That volume is the size of Indianapolis. And as evidenced by its recent doubling in size, the project is just getting off the ground: As it racks up more successes, more cities around the country will ask to join the partnership — and both the cost savings as well as the carbon savings will multiply exponentially. Eventually, the City Energy Project no longer will be a "project." The ideas at its foundation simply will be how all cities — of all sizes, and all over — work to reduce their carbon footprint through maximizing the energy efficiency of their buildings.

At a national political moment when so much seems so uncertain, it’s good to be reminded that real progress — like flowing water — doesn't stop when it meets an obstacle. It just finds another way.