photo source: Rob__

The Folio blog reported this afternoon that:

Jacksonville Mayor John Peyton has signed the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, in which cities commit to scaling back their greenhouse-gas emissions in accordance with the international Kyoto Protocol’s target for the U.S.: to 7 percent below 1990 levels by 2012.

There is great additional coverage and commentary on this story here Better late than never: Peyton commits to fight global warming

Some are skeptical on what this means for Jacksonville’s environmental future coming from a man whose family owns one of Jacksonville’s largest gasoline companies. Me, I think it’s a step in the right direction. Now we all have something to hold our Mayor to for the next 4 years.

Let’s take a quick look at the agreement shall we? Under the Agreement, participating cities commit to take the following three actions:

  1. Strive to meet or beat the Kyoto Protocol targets in their own communities, through actions ranging from anti-sprawl land-use policies to urban forest restoration projects to public information campaigns
  2. Urge their state governments, and the federal government, to enact policies and programs to meet or beat the greenhouse gas emission reduction target suggested for the United States in the Kyoto Protocol — 7% reduction from 1990 levels by 2012
  3. Urge the U.S. Congress to pass the bipartisan greenhouse gas reduction legislation, which would establish a national emission trading system

So now our job as residents of this community is to hold the Mayor accountable to his environmental pledge. In front of us is another great opportunity to set Jacksonville apart and show that we’re a progressive city who cares about environmental issues.

If we play our cards right, it could mean positive PR and the possibility of attracting bright, young minds to live and work in the city. This is something we are losing more and more of each day as progressive thinkers abandon the seemingly backwards and at times nonsensical policies of our local government for more progressive thinking and acting cities.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 19th, 2007 at 10:14 pm and is filed under Activism, Eco. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.