The Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG) and its members have again received international recognition for their plan to mitigate climate change locally and work for a more climate resilient region.
The Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy (GCoM), a global alliance working toward a resilient and low emission society, found COG’s regional greenhouse gas emission reduction goals and Metropolitan Washington 2030 Climate and Energy Action Plan fully compliant with the global standards of best practices for climate planning. GCoM awarded COG “Mitigation” and “Adaptation” achievement badges in recognition. Metropolitan Washington is the first region in the United States to achieve this status.
“This is a great day for our region, and we’re honored to be recognized and lead the way in the U.S. on climate planning,” said COG Climate, Energy, and Environment Policy Committee Chair (CEEPC) and Prince George’s County Council Member Deni Taveras. “At the same time, we recognize that we have a lot of urgent work to do together to implement the actions needed to see our climate plan through and reach our shared goals.”
CEEPC unanimously approved the 2030 Climate and Energy Action Plan last year. The plan outlined collaborative actions the region should take to meet its shared climate goals, which include achieving a 50 percent reduction in GHG emissions below 2005 emission levels by 2030.
“It’s exciting to receive this recognition after years of collaboration on climate planning, and I applaud area jurisdictions for their leadership and the standards to which they hold our region,” said COG Executive Director Chuck Bean. “It will take unprecedented cross-sector coordination and action to meet our bold climate goals, but we can and we must rise to this challenge.”
GCoM named COG a Regional and Metro Scale Climate Leader in 2019, and COG followed GCoM’s framework of global best practices for climate planning in developing the climate action plan. In addition to working closely with local, regional, and state leaders and stakeholders, the region received guidance and support from national and international organizations including the European Union (EU), International Urban Cooperation (IUC), ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability, and the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP).
“We would like to congratulate COG on their achievement of becoming the first metropolitan region in the U.S. to achieve full compliance with the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy,” said Mercedes Garcia Perez, Head of Global Issues and Innovation, European Union Delegation to the United States. “Based on our experiences in the EU, we know the importance of upholding these standards and hope that many more U.S. regions will follow in the footsteps of COG in planning ambitious climate action at the regional level. We wish the team the best of luck with the implementation of this plan and look forward to achieving our shared goals and to facilitating meaningful exchanges between U.S. and EU regions.”
The region has made progress to date reducing emissions despite a growing population, attributable to a cleaner energy grid, cleaner cars, and reduced vehicle miles traveled per person. However, inventories show the rate of emission reductions slowing, which has led officials and experts to call for the adoption and swift implementation of a wide range of innovative strategies.
The 2030 Climate and Energy Action Plan facilitates a regional move toward zero energy buildings, zero emission vehicles, and zero waste, among other priority actions, in addition to assessing the region’s climate hazards and vulnerabilities.
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GCoM Dashboard: Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments
COG Climate and Energy Planning
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