Feds May Say "No Climate Change", Mayors Disagree

The Bush Administration may have taken a stance of questioning whether "climate change" is real, but more than 200 mayors across the US have pledged that their cities "will work to reduce fossil fuel emission levels and consider other measures to address environmental impacts." (Mayors Across U.S. Rally For Environment.)

The Mayors Agreement commits cities to:

• 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;
• Urge their state governments, and the federal government, to enact policies to meet the greenhouse gas emission reduction target suggested for the United States in the Kyoto Protocol - a 7 percent reduction from 1990 levels by 2012;
• Urge the U.S. Congress to pass the bipartisan greenhouse gas reduction legislation, which would establish a national emission trading system.

These mayors seem to mean it: City crafting broad plan to improve livability. And in Utah, Cities better on environment than feds, Rocky tells mayors.

So, I have three questions.

1. If you read the first article above, one St. Louis-area mayor says he's concerned, but thinks there's little to be done at the local level. Is he right?

2. How can this agreement be effective? It's certainly not enforceable or anything, so, it's a declaratory document, an expression of intent and consensus. What's going to happen when or if different communities fail their Kyoto goal, not from an enforcement perspective, but from a motivating perspective? No one can be held to this agreement, though they certainly can be shamed. Will they give up after a year and walk away?

3. Taking a Boston-centric approach: What might public commitment to such an agreement do to, say, future transit plans for the Boston area? (Note: Governor Mitt Romney withdrew Massachusetts from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Iniative (RGGI) in mid-December, but the state legislature will be introducing language to bring Massachusetts into compliance anyway. Not to mention, Mayor Menino has signed on to the Mayor's Agreement.)

The home of the agreement is here, and the text is available here (PDF), and lastly, a list of the current signatories: right here.

It'll be very interesting to see how this unfolds.