CityLab Daily: How U.S. Cities Score on Clean Energy

It’s not easy being green: Over the past two nights, CNN’s Democratic presidential debates dedicated a combined 20 minutes to climate change. That represents the most time spent discussing the issue on the national debate stage so far, after the network’s viewers told pollsters it was their top issue (New Republic). As candidates talk about their plans to decarbonize the U.S. economy to take on this urgent threat, cities have been taking action and setting their own ambitious goals to switch to renewable energy.

But there’s an awful lot more to be done, according to a new clean energy scorecard that ranks U.S. cities’ efforts to improve their energy efficiency. All in all, 48 cities have set goals to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, but only 11 are on track to meet those goals. A whopping 21 cities still lack sufficient data to even track their progress. The hope is that this new scorecard can help cities pick up the pace and do more to find energy savings. CityLab’s Linda Poon has the story: How American Cities Score on Clean Energy