New ACEEE city rankings highlight areas for improvement in clean energy policy, racial and social equity
The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE), a not-for-profit research organization concentrated on decreasing energy waste, just recently launched its 6th City Clean Energy Scorecard, the latest rankings of U.S. cities according to their clean energy efforts.
The report ranks 100 major cities based upon their efforts to make transport more energy effective while increasing renewable energy usage. The research study thinks about five crucial policy locations: regional federal government operations, community-wide efforts, buildings, energy and water energies, and transportation.
San Francisco received the leading ranking for the very first time, followed by Seattle in 2nd, Washington, DC in third, Minneapolis in 4th and Boston and New York tied for 5th. The leading 5 cities were separated by only 4.5 points. Madison, Charlotte and Honolulu were kept in mind as the majority of improved cities given that the 2020 City Scorecard.
Supporting this high ranking is Oregons requirement for house sellers to reveal house energy performance scores, a program that taps into requirements established by Energy Trust. A home energy rating assists purchasers and homeowners much better understand how a home uses energy and what actions they can take to enhance their homes energy efficiency.
The report highlighted the following key findings:
“Overall, we found that numerous cities continue to increase their clean energy efforts, however all cities would enhance their scores by increasing their commitment to social and racial equity, embracing more mandatory policies to improve the energy performance of existing buildings, and tracking and embracing progress toward stringent community-wide energy cost savings and transportation sector objectives,” the report mentioned.
Madison, Charlotte and Honolulu were noted as most enhanced cities considering that the 2020 City Scorecard.
Supporting this high ranking is Oregons requirement for home sellers to reveal home energy performance scores, a program that taps into criteria developed by Energy Trust. A home energy rating assists purchasers and property owners better understand how a home utilizes energy and what actions they can take to enhance their houses energy performance.
Cities who have just recently enacted tidy energy policies have actually been primarily focused on sectors outside of transportation.
Challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic impacted cities through financing, staffing and operational obstacles. Some cities were much better able to adapt in order to effectively handle the altering scenario.
In total, 25 cities have adopted goals related to transportation, however only 3 are on track to meet the objectives– an indicator that many significant U.S. cities have actually not yet created strong policies concentrated on lowering greenhouse gas emissions due to transport, and as an outcome, are disappointing climate goals because sector.