Embrace Suburbs, Exurbs in Climate Planning, Researchers Urge Cities

Extending regional planning to suburbs and exurbs is key to catapulting cities toward their climate goals, even as funding and capacity limits make it harder to implement climate pledges, two Brookings Institution researchers say in a recent blog post. “Suburbs and exurbs may be adding to the country’s climate challenges, but they are also central to addressing them,” write Brookings consulting intern Megumi Tamura and Metro fellow Joseph W. Kane. Regional planning could also help local leaders address some of the country’s largest GHG sources, like car-centric transportation networks, which stretch across jurisdictions. So setting clear benchmarks and sharing data across entire regions is critical to initiating climate collaborations. The post cites a successful effort by San Diego’s Climate Science Alliance to gather comprehensive climate impact data throughout the region into a single report.