Boston Blog

Battling climate change the Boston way

The city of Boston emerged yesterday as one of the few cities in the US pledging to tackle the global warming problem. Mayor Menino announced a plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions from the city’s 400 buildings and 2,000 vehicles by 7 percent below 1990 levels by 2012 and by 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. Here are some highlights of the plan:

  • the city must buy at least 15 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2012
  • city vehicles must burn 5 percent less fuel by 2012
  • Boston hopes to offer no-interest loans to residents and businesses for the installation of more energy efficient technologies, like fluorescent bulbs—a program worth a potential $500 million

The energy efficiency trend seems to be gaining momentum in Boston-Cambridge; last month, the city of Cambridge launched a smaller version of the Boston program.

And Boston is requiring private builders meet energy efficiency standards.

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