Metro residents produce less carbon
America’s largest cities are more energy- and cost-efficient than non-metropolitan areas, and the people living in them leave smaller carbon footprints than average Americans, according to a report by the Washington-based Brookings Institute. The report “Shrinking the Carbon Footprint of Metropolitan America,” released May 29, calls for a federal policy to manage metropolitan energy and climate solutions.
The institute found that 100 major cities included in the report emitted 56 percent of the emissions from highway transportation and residential buildings in 2005, and carbon emissions increased more slowly in the metropolitan areas than the rest of the nation between 2000 and 2005. The average metro resident produced 2.24 metric tons of carbon emissions during 2005, while the national average was 2.60 metric tons per person. The report provides individual carbon footprint breakdowns for each city, and is available at www.brookings.edu.