Local responses to global warming.

• Author: Platt, Anne E.
• Position: Carbon Dioxide Reduction Strategy of Portland, Oregon

Portland, Oregon, a metropolitan area of 1.2 million people, has become the first city in the United States to provide a model of how responses to global warming can be implemented at the local level. The Portland City Council passed the Carbon Dioxide Reduction Strategy in November.

The city's policy sets out a plan for cutting emissions of carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas, 20 percent below 1988 levels by 2010--from 10.1 million metric tons to 8.1 million metric tons. Since experts were projecting that emissions would reach 42 percent above 1988 levels by 2010, the city will have to reduce emissions by almost half in the next 16 years in order to meet its goal.

Portland is one of a few dozen cities around the world that are tackling global warming at this level. Four years ago, it was one of 12 cities chosen to participate in the International Urban C|O.sub.2~ Reduction Project, sponsored by the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives. The project involves cities in Canada, Finland, Denmark, Germany, Italy, and Turkey, as well as the United States.

Since the rise in Portland's carbon dioxide emissions is expected to...