Lab Report: With 'Chicago Charter,' Dozens of Cities Defy Trump on Climate

”Forget Paris”: Countering President Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, at least 36 U.S. cities today are poised to sign on to their own accord for reducing greenhouse gas emissions—“The Chicago Charter.” Former President Obama is slated to address the group of mayors gathered in Chicago for the two-day North American Climate Summit. USA Today reports:

“Each mayor is going to sign their own customized plan on how they are going to achieve the 2025 Paris Agreement,” Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who is hosting the climate summit, told USA Today. “We’re all going to get to the same destination in our own individual way. It’s designed in such a way that it’s measurable.”

Among the highlights of what cities—including New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and Washington—plan to do are to reduce greenhouse gas emission by up to 28 percent and also to track each city’s goals. The results will be shared with the public.

• See also: President Trump just disbanded a cross-agency panel that was created in 2015 to help cities deal with extreme weather and natural disasters—one of “the last federal bodies that openly talked about climate change in public,” its chairman told Bloomberg News.

Polls open in Atlanta: A runoff election today could disrupt a defining element of Atlanta’s identity: decades of leadership under black mayors. Mary Norwood, who’s running as an independent against fellow former city council member Keisha Lance Bottoms, would be the city’s first-ever white female mayor. (AP)

Tunnel map: A preliminary map of Elon Musk’s tunnel plans for Los Angeles show the high-speed transit system running between Long Beach Airport to Sherman Oaks, and from Dodger Stadium to LAX, with smaller tunnels fanning out to neighborhoods east and west. (Curbed Los Angeles)

Safer NYC: New York City officials are crediting a ramped-up approach to community policing—placing 2,000 more officers on patrol over the last two years—for the safest November in the city’s recorded history, as the city looks on pace to see its lowest crime numbers since the 1950s. (Route Fifty)

Best of 2017: In its year-end roundup, Smart Cities Dive has named Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto the city leader of the year for his defiance of President Trump on climate resiliency efforts and his host of innovative policies, while declaring Washington, D.C., the city of the year for its title as the first LEED Platinum city.

Avots: Citylab