By Nima Kapadia

Some of the largest cities in the U.S., including New York, Las Vegas and New Orleans, have agreed to measure and disclose their greenhouse gas emissions to better understand the potential risks and opportunities associated with climate change.

Thirty cities in all will participate in the pilot program coordinated by the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) and the International Council on Local Environment Initiative (ICLEI) Local Government for Sustainability.

According to CDP chief executive Paul Dickinson: “Over 70 percent of total global emissions are generated from cities. If you cannot measure these emissions you cannot manage them.”

The emissions data will be gathered by each city’s municipal departments, such as fire stations, ambulances, police and waste services and government buildings. Cities also will use software embedded with ICLEI reporting protocol to gather data. They will submit their findings to the CDP by October 31, 2008. All responses will be published in the first Carbon Disclosure Project Cities Report and ICLEI Local Action Network Report in January 2009.

Nine cities expected to participate in the program have not been formally announced.
The other 21 cities that have publicly agreed to participate are Albany, N.Y.; Albuquerque, N.M.; Anchorage, Alaska; Arlington, Va.; Burlington, Vt.; Denver, Colo.; Dubuque, Iowa; Edina, Minn.; Fairfield, Iowa; Haverford, Pa.; Las Vegas, Nev.; New Orleans, La.; New York, N.Y.; North Little Rock, Ark.; Pacific Grove, Calif.; Park City, Utah; Portland, Ore.; Rohnert Park, Calif.; St. Paul, Minn.; Washougal, Wash.; and West Palm Beach, Fla.

An independent non-profit organization founded in 2000, the CDP collects key climate change data from more than 3,000 major corporations globally and has assembled the largest corporate greenhouse gas emissions database in the world

For more information on the pilot program, visit the Carbon Disclosure Project’s website.

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