Pardee Center Director Talks About Cities and Climate Change on WBUR

Pardee Center Director Anthony Janetos was interviewed during a live segment on National Public Radio affiliate WBUR on June 9 about the leading role cities are playing in adopting measures to address the impacts of climate change. Prof. Janetos was interviewed on the Morning Edition program in relation to the announcement this week that in 2017 Boston will host the U.S.-China Climate Leaders Summit for city officials from both countries.

During the interview, Prof. Janetos talked about the city of Boston’s leadership role in using local building codes and transportation policies to both plan for more frequent floods and other extreme weather events and to help reduce the amount of greenhouse gases emitted to the atmosphere.  He said there is “no particular reason why (cities) need to wait for national governments to act” when local roads are flooding more frequently at high tides. However, he noted that while cities can take some actions locally, national policies such as setting standards for the auto industry to produce cars that get better gas mileage and produce few emissions are also necessary to help reduce the impacts of climate change. “In the long-run, there will have to be cooperation among cities and state and national governments,” he said.

An internationally recognized expert in the science and impacts of climate change, Prof. Janetos has served as a co-director of the U.S. National Assessment of Climate Change as well as a lead author and coordinating lead author for reports issued by Working Group II of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. He also was co-director of a project that developed a series of climate change indicators that can be used by federal agencies in the development of future U.S. National Climate Assessments.