CLIMATE ACTION PLAN - City of Urbana

A MESSAGE FROM THE MAYOR
August 31, 2012
Dear Citizens of Urbana,
As climate change emerged as an international problem, cities around the world have taken the
lead in finding solutions. Cities act because they recognize that they will deal with the human costs
of climate change. National governments still struggle to come to agreement on this issue. Cities
are able to move more quickly. Many cities are reducing greenhouse gases not only in their own
operations but by educating the public about practical action we all can take.
Urbana is a small city, so what difference can we make In fact, a few Urbana residents have
made a big difference already. The University of Illinois, a top research university, brings bright minds
together .
Don Wuebbles, University of Illinois climate scientist, and one of the recipients of the 2007 Nobel Prize
for the international Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, helped document the reality of
climate change and the need to reduce greenhouse gases.
Nick Holonyak, Jr., University of Illinois Bardeen professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
invented the LED. Professor Holonyak, who lives in Urbana, has transformed lighting systems
worldwide. At the C40 Large Cities Climate Summit in Seoul, Korea in 2009 the largest cities on earth
were talking about installing LED lighting and the energy savings they achieved.
At the kind invitation of Professor Wuebbles and the City of Seoul, Marya Ryan, Chair of Urbana’s
Sustainability Advisory Commission, and I attended the 2009 meeting in Seoul (oddly enough, I was
the only American mayor present, although other U.S. cities sent staff). Mayors and officials from all
over the world-- Beijing, Sydney, Copenhagen, London and many others-- shared ideas. All realize
we face the same challenges and can learn from one another.
The City of Urbana Climate Action Plan is our commitment to streamline municipal operations and to
educate our citizens and others about how we can reduce the threat of climate change. Students
come to the University of Illinois from around the world. They are the future leaders in their countries.
Urbana’s implementation of the ideas in this plan can be part of their education outside the
classroom. And we can learn from them. So a small city like Urbana can have a big impact.
My initial charge to the Sustainability Advisory Commission was to consider conservation of both
energy and water. This first report deals only with energy. They plan to deal with water issues next.
All these plans are works in progress that will be modified as we move forward.
Marya Ryan has ably chaired the Sustainability Advisory Commission and wrote an initial draft of this
report. We thank her and all who have served on the Commission as well as the staff of the city’s
Community Development and Public Works departments for the many months they have spent on
developing this plan.
Laurel Lunt Prussing
City of Urbana
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