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Climate Choices for a Sustainable Southwest 419Case Studies of Climate Choices for a Sustainable SouthwestCities Responding to Climate Change in the SouthwestBox 18.3Cities are emerging as the leaders in settingpolicies, preparing risk assessments, and settingtargets for the reduction of GHG emissions(Rosenzweig 2010; see also Chapter 13). Organizationssuch as ICLEI, the World Mayors Councilon Climate Change, and the C40 Cities ClimateLeadership Group have provided successful venuesfor cities to raise awareness and disseminatebest practices (Zimmerman and Faris 2011). Nationwidemost of the climate action at the citylevel is still focused on mitigation (Wheeler 2000;http://www.icleiusa.org/) and recent assessmentsof these mitigation efforts have been critical oftheir likelihood to reach stated goals (Willson andBrown 2008). In the Southwest, more than 140 citiesare members of ICLEI. Success stories includeFort Collins, Colorado, which has not increasedits annual GHG emissions since 2005 despite 5%population growth. Fort Collins is hoping to reduceemissions by 80% below 2005 levels by 2050(Karlstrom 2010). Salt Lake City, Utah, reducedits GHG emissions by 31% between 2005 and2009 (Zimmerman and Faris 2011). Cities such asLos Angeles; Boulder City, Nevada; and Pleasanton,California, are also promoting initiatives toexpand locally based renewable energy initiatives(Zimmerman and Faris 2011).Several states have also begun adaptation planning efforts (see Center for Climate andEnergy Solutions 2012; Georgetown Law Center 2012). Although California is the onlystate in the region to have completed a state adaptation plan (see Box 18.4), climate actionplans in Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado call for the development of statewideadaptation activities, and in some sectors―such as water management―adaptation activitiesare already underway (Chou 2012). Many local governments are also engagingin adaptation planning; to date more than 140 cities in the Southwest are members ofICLEI—Local Governments for Sustainability. iii To facilitate such adaptation planning,nine western utilities—together with several from other U.S. regions—have formed theWater Utility Climate Alliance and have been funding research on adaptation strategiesfor water utilities. This includes a study on advancing climate modeling (Barsugli et al.2009) and methods for planning adaptation under uncertainty (Means et al. 2010).18.6 Linking Mitigation and AdaptationTo move toward greater sustainability, both adaptation and mitigation efforts are neededand in some organizations (and households) the same person or group of decisionmakers are responsible for both activities. While both types of activities have distinctgoals, their interaction has four possible outcomes: (1) mitigation positively supportsthe achievement of adaptation goals; (2) mitigation undermines the achievement of adaptationgoals; (3) adaptation supports the achievement of mitigation goals (emission