City of Pittsburgh Climate Action Plan

Climate change is a major threat to communities around the world. Potential consequences of climate change include an increase in extreme weather events, higher rates of infectious diseases and heat-related illnesses, the possible shortage of food and basic goods as well as an increase in public expenditures to mitigate these effects. The City of Pittsburgh has long recognized that wide-ranging action must be taken in order to mitigate the effects of climate change on both local and global communities.

As a result, on February 9, 2007, the City of Pittsburgh signed the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, pledging to implement local climate change mitigation solutions that would save taxpayer dollars and reduce long-term energy use.

Pittsburgh’s Green Government Task Force (GGTF) was charged with developing the first ever Pittsburgh Climate Action Plan, adopted by the City as a guiding document in July 2008. This document provided an outline of specific strategies for achieving reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

In 2012, the Pittsburgh Climate Action Plan 2.0 was created to review and revise the efforts of government, private businesses, institutions of higher education, and Pittsburgh residents toward the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. New measures were proposed that could be implemented in order meet a greenhouse gas reduction target of 20% below 2003 levels by the year 2023.

By 2017, it was clear that expedited measures must be taken to help mitigate the local effects of global climate change. Building on the successes of the previous versions, Pittsburgh Climate Action Plan, Version 3.0 has been created to track progress made through the first two plans and to propose new measures to counteract the adverse effects of climate change. This document aligns with Mayor William Peduto’s climate goals1 signed in 2015 at the Paris Accords, where he was one of 12 mayors representing the United States. In June 2017, Mayor Peduto also joined 175 other U.S. mayors in signing an Executive Order1 to pledge efforts to meet the “1.5 degrees Celsius target” as set forth by the Paris Agreement.

The Pittsburgh Climate Action Plan 3.0 takes a renewed approach to climate change mitigation by presenting action plans and strategies regarding six key areas: Energy Generation & Distribution, Buildings & End Use Efficiency, Transportation & Land Use, Waste & Resource Recovery, Food & Agriculture, and Urban Ecosystems.