Boston joins global climate initiative

Boston plans to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent in the next six years, and hopes to make an 80 percent reduction by 2050. To achieve this goal, the 2014 Climate Action Plan Steering Committee was created by the mayor’s office and includes members from many of Boston’s industries.

Boston’s CO2 emission is about 6.8 million tons annually. Half of this city’s emissions are from commercial buildings, and 28 percent from transportation. A comparably sized city — Washington, D.C. — produces 10.5 million tons of CO2 annually, 60 percent from commercial buildings, and 24 percent from transportation.

“Boston, through a series of climate adaptation and mitigation strategies, is already a demonstrated leader and we have much to learn from them.” said C40 Chair Mayor Eduardo Paes of Rio de Janeiro last week in a statement announcing Boston’s membership in the C40 Global Climate Leadership Group.

The C40 is a worldwide network of cities committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions at the local level in order to make a global impact on climate change. Created in 2005, C40 is partners with the Cities Program of President Clinton’s Climate Initiative.