{"id":11824,"date":"2021-05-20T16:48:28","date_gmt":"2021-05-20T20:48:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/igs\/?p=11824"},"modified":"2026-02-20T17:49:58","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T22:49:58","slug":"accelerating-cities-net-zero-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/igs\/2021\/05\/20\/accelerating-cities-net-zero-action\/","title":{"rendered":"Accelerating Cities\u2019 Net Zero Action"},"content":{"rendered":"

The impact of partnerships and emerging opportunities in financing for city climate action<\/em><\/p>\n

By Jacqueline Ashmore and Taylor Dudley<\/p>\n

May 2021<\/p>\n

City-university partnerships can be a powerful accelerant to the decarbonization transition, supporting the crucial effort to achieve dramatic emissions mitigation in the coming decade to maintain a sustainable future. The Institute for Sustainable Energy (now the Boston University Institute for Global Sustainability) developed a summary report from two virtual roundtables convened by the ISE and the UK Government in February 2021 with stakeholders from city government, academia, and net-zero experts from North America and the UK.<\/p>\nDownload Report<\/a>\n

\n

Key Takeaways<\/h3>
<\/p>\n

Partnership Visioning Lab:<\/h4>\n
    \n
  • Large-scale change requires a collaborative approach with a common agenda, shared measurement systems, mutually reinforcing activities, continuous communication, and a backbone support organization.

    <\/li>\n
  • Increasingly, universities are willing to pilot specific climate actions on their campus with the idea that, if successful, that approach can be scaled up in their local city.

    <\/li>\n
  • In some places, corporations are establishing strong roles to support city climate action.

    <\/li>\n
  • Partnership mini case studies include the success of “Colorado Communities for Climate Action,” Aspen, CO; community engagement for shaping the climate action plan, Providence, RI; and universities as “Living Labs” for sustainability, Plymouth, UK.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    \"Key<\/p>\n

    Innovative Financing Visioning Lab:<\/h4>\n
      \n
    • In addition to supporting the deployment of clean energy technologies, green banks can be a resilient source of financing amidst economic uncertainty and can have an outsize impact in supporting projects in low-income communities.

      <\/li>\n
    • The attraction of certifying a municipal bond as green has grown in part because the sustainable investors involved in the green bond market are diverse and include mainstream, specialized, and corporate investors.

      <\/li>\n
    • Some U.S. municipalities have established programs that price carbon.

      <\/li>\n
    • Innovative financing mini case studies include the National Investment Bank with a local net-zero mandate, UK100; income-tiered electric vehicle car share, City of Boston; and putting a price on carbon at the city level, Austin, TX<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      \"Key<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      IGS Research | May 2021<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15145,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[690,332],"tags":[638,670,210,671,646],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/igs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11824"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/igs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/igs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/igs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15145"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/igs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11824"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/igs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11824\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24723,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/igs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11824\/revisions\/24723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/igs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/igs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/igs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}