Seattle to Kyoto: You can't get there by car
If Seattle is going to do its part to slow global warming, people are going to have to get out of their cars.
That's the cornerstone - and also the biggest challenge - of a plan to be unveiled today for how the city can join countries from around the world in trying to meet the Kyoto Protocol, a 1997 international treaty to reduce climate-changing gases such as carbon dioxide.
The report, written at the request of Mayor Greg Nickels, says that if the city really wants to cut greenhouse gases, it needs to spend millions more on transit, build more compact neighborhoods, encourage energy efficiency and use more fuels from plants rather than petroleum.
And a critical part of the plan — perhaps its toughest political sell — involves driving up the cost of driving.
"I think what we're going to find is it's not an easy task," Nickels said Thursday. "I think we're also going to find it's not impossible."
Nickels, who has gained national attention by calling on other U.S. mayors to embrace the Kyoto requirements, will unveil the recommendations at an event today at City Hall with former Vice President Al Gore, Congressmen Jay Inslee and Adam Smith, and Carl Pope, the executive director of the Sierra Club.
The proposal, issued by an 18-member commission of environmentalists and business and community leaders chosen by Nickels more than a year ago, puts Seattle at the forefront of the Kyoto movement among U.S. cities. But turning it into action could prove daunting.
Much of it would depend on cooperation — and money — from other governmental bodies or businesses. It broaches potentially sensitive topics, such as toll roads and land-use regulations that could take years to produce major changes. And for now, the cost of enacting it is not addressed.
Some transportation experts and business leaders cautioned that the plan could be easier said than done. And environmentalists and experts on global-warming politics stress that meeting the Kyoto Protocol is only a tiny first step for addressing the real threats of climate change.
Nickels and city staff will review the recommendations and decide which parts of the proposal to implement and how to do it. Some steps could be enacted by the mayor. But others would require City Council approval, or even agreements with other governments and businesses.
But Denis Hayes, an environmentalist who helped lead the commission that produced the report, said the plan would benefit Seattle.
"This set of recommendations is ecologically responsible, but it's not putting a hair shirt on Seattle," he said.
The basic goal of the proposal is to cut total emissions of greenhouse gas from Seattle — residents, businesses and city government — to 7 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. That means that in 2012, the city would emit about 684,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide less than if it made no changes.
Continue reading this story from the Seattle Times:
Seattle to Kyoto: You can't get there by car
