Why Raleigh should sign the US Mayors Climate Protection Agreement

The News&Observer, continuing its good coverage of Cool Cities, pointed out again this morning that Raleigh has not yet signed on.

I appreciated the piece but was a little uncomfortable with this section:

The proposal is still being considered by the Raleigh City Council. It's in committee, Jensen said.

"They move more slowly," he added.

I'm afraid my quote may be taken the wrong way. While their governance process moves slowly, explaining why the resolution is still stuck in committee, they have moved quickly with initiatives to address global warming. The CREE project is particularly good and notable.

So if they're doing good work anyway, why bother signing the Mayors Agreement, some have asked me.

The reason is that the Mayors Agreement creates an overall framework with measurable goals that good individual initiatives work toward. A good project here and a good project there is certainly something to be commended- putting them into a wide vision toward a specific reduction in greenhouse gas emissions is even better.