Jamaica Plain Gazette, November 2022
A first-of-its-kind report on Boston’s collective progress toward being a carbon-neutral city by 2050, that was released last week, finds that while the city has made notable progress in some areas, a variety of obstacles will make meeting that goal difficult. The report, the Inaugural Boston Climate Progress Report, was prepared for the Boston Foundation by researchers at Northeastern University’s Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy.
The report will be updated every two years to assess Boston’s progress toward achieving net-zero emissions by 2050, our resilience to future climate disruptions, and the equity of our climate response. The report highlights a dozen key outcomes that must be achieved by programs, projects, and initiatives whose success is imperative to reaching the overarching goals, and then lays out four “big lifts,” system-transforming actions which Boston—along with the broader region and state—needs to accelerate to sharply reduce net emissions.
“This is a comprehensive report that captures the complexity and nuances of making Boston an urban leader in climate protection and resilience,” said M. Lee Pelton, President and CEO of the Boston Foundation. “It also sets a framework for tracking our ability to progress toward Boston’s ambitious but critically important goals of becoming a net-zero city that is prepared for the impacts of climate change and protects all its residents equitably.”
