The annual United Nations meeting about climate change, known as the Conference of Parties or COP, wrapped up this week with nations agreeing an unprecedented deal to phase out fossil fuel use. The 28th international climate convening began Nov. 30 in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, and tense negotiations required more than a full day of overtime talks after meetings were supposed to end Dec. 12.
Mayor Muriel Bowser attended several days of COP28 early in the month, and her administration released a long-awaited finalized plan to become a carbon-free city by 2045 while she was there. The move signals D.C.’s continued efforts to stand out as a climate leader nationally and internationally.
“They say all politics are local — it’s the same thing with the climate crisis,” said the Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr., head of the national climate justice group Hip Hop Caucus. “What happens in D.C. has an impact for other cities, who watch.”
While in Dubai, Bowser participated in the Local Climate Action Summit, a first-time event that aimed to plug local and regional leaders into the international deal-making and knowledge-sharing efforts going on at COP28. Yearwood Jr., who also attended the summit, said that many conversations there centered on the connections between climate policy and other urban priorities like reducing violence or providing employment. Leaders also focused on improving resilience to extreme weather and strategizing for the clean energy transition.
“This climate crisis also creates tons of opportunities,” Yearwood Jr. said. “[Mayor Bowser] is accountable to bring that back… We have the ability to hold her to it, to say ‘hey, what did you bring back? What opportunities can be utilized from that?… How can we benefit?’”
Carbon Free DC Plan Emphasizes Community Benefits
City officials at the D.C. Department of Energy and Environment (DOEE) appeared to be thinking along similar lines while developing their plan to achieve carbon neutrality by 2045. The finalized plan, released Dec. 1, places emphasis on how emissions reduction efforts can improve housing, health, transportation and economic prospects for D.C. residents.
“The strategy is focused on cutting carbon pollution, but really the guiding focus is how we can make those investments work for communities,” said Jenn Hatch, branch chief of Green Building and Climate at DOEE. “We can use this as a lever to improve and expand housing that’s high quality and affordable; to make it easier to get around the city without needing to get in a car; and really to improve health and air quality, especially in neighborhoods that are overburdened by pollution.”
Carbon Free DC envisions a District in 22 years where nearly all buildings run completely on electricity, use energy very efficiently and are built to withstand more intense weather events. In this world, far fewer people need cars to get around, and all new vehicles are electric. Only 20% of the waste we produce today ends up in landfills or incinerators.
According to a 28-page summary of the plan, current D.C. policies would enable the city to cut 65% of its emissions (compared to 2006) by 2045; the accelerated trajectory outlined by the plan would bring that number up to 88% by the target date.
“It’s a good plan to get D.C. on track to eliminate its climate pollution,” said Mark Rodeffer, an advocate with the D.C. Sierra Club chapter. “But we don’t just need it planned… we need actions to carry out the plan.”
Activists Identify Implementation Challenges
Earlier this fall, a board that approves updates to the city’s construction codes shot down a proposal to require all-electric construction in most new buildings; Rodeffer said that a Bowser appointee to the board led the fight against the proposal. Meanwhile, the designs for a new public archives building at the University of the District of Columbia relies on fossil fuels despite a 2022 law mandating new city-owned buildings meet net-zero standards after Oct. 1.
“The mayor is saying she wants, in the next 16 or 17 years, 90% of buildings to not use fossil fuels — well, of course, the place to start is with newly constructed buildings,” Rodeffer said. “When you’re in a hole, you should stop digging.”
According to DOEE, the city has managed to cut carbon emissions by just over 30% since 2006. But much of that reduction likely comes from a nationwide switch from coal to gas in the energy grid, Rodeffer said. Even though burning gas produces less carbon than coal, gas is still a fossil fuel that pollutes the air and traps heat in the atmosphere.
Hatch, from DOEE, said that the District will continue working with regional partners to increase the amount of clean energy used in the electricity grid going forward. The plan calls for adding more rooftop solar panels for on-site generation, too.
In addition to the fossil fuels used to make electricity at power plants, many D.C. buildings — including half of the District’s homes — currently rely on burning gas on site for heating. Washington Gas, with approval from the District, has spent millions of dollars on a major pipe replacement project that is set to continue for another 30 years. Advocates argue that continued investment in gas infrastructure raises costs now and will make it nearly impossible to achieve carbon neutrality in the future.
“What is missing [from the Carbon Free DC Plan] is the fact that we also need to be decommissioning and phasing the District off of the gas system,” said Naomi Cohen-Shields of Chesapeake Climate Action Network. “That’s not just about retrofitting buildings. That’s also about changing the way that our utilities work, and not allowing them to get away with raising gas bills to pay for new gas pipes that are completely contrary to this plan.”
Mayor’s COP28 Attendance Sparks Controversy
Cohen-Shields said she wanted to see Mayor Bowser come back from the climate conference in Dubai with “renewed commitment” to executing the Carbon Free DC plan, phasing out fossil fuel use and investing in resilience measures back home.
“That would be a tangible benefit, but I don’t have a lot of faith that that is what is going to happen,” she said. “We’re facing the impacts of climate change already in D.C. There’s extreme heat in the summer, extreme flooding events, impacts of the warming climate on our ecosystem — on the cherry blossoms. And we need to see action that shows that the administration gets it and is there for citizens in the city, not just abroad.”
The mayor’s six-day trip for COP, which included a stop in Qatar to meet with leaders there, caught the attention of folks outside climate advocacy circles, too. In articles in right-leaning outlets like Fox News and BizPac Review and conversations on X (formerly Twitter), critics argued that the trip took the administration’s attention away from other problems in the District.
“Where the city is right now, with the uptick in violent crime across the city… the perception that you relay to your constituency shows one of neglect and dismissiveness,” said Bashon Mann, a Ward 7 resident. “As the leader of this city, you need to show, at this day and time, a bit more of a hands-on approach to what’s happening.”
Mann, a father and Navy veteran, said while he didn’t expect the mayor to be “out there fighting crime on the streets,” he wanted to see Bowser do more to negotiate with the D.C. Council, implement tangible steps to deter violence and connect with communities to hear about issues firsthand.
“Listen, climate change is extremely important,” Mann said. “All this stuff is important, I get it. [But] her timing is bad.”
In the climate space, though, scientists and policymakers have repeatedly emphasized that time is running short. At a Dec. 11 press event, the head of the United Nations told reporters “the clock keeps ticking” for nations to cut fossil fuel use if the world is to stick to previous commitments and avoid some of the most dangerous levels of warming.
“This is the irony — we know that particularly in urban communities, when it’s hotter, violence increases, so [addressing] that is part of the adaptation,” said Yearwood Jr., leader of Hip Hop Caucus. “It would be such a disadvantage for D.C. citizens to miss the opportunities that are being developed right now, within the Local Climate Action Summit and within the climate conversation in general.”