The city of Chicago has a new climate change action plan. It’s the latest in a series of plans that haven’t always met goals to reduce the city’s carbon footprint.

Reporter Monica Eng of Axios Chicago talks to WBEZ’s Melba Lara about the evolution of plans since Richard M. Daley was mayor.

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TRANSCRIPT:

MELBA LARA, HOST: You’re listening to WBEZ. This spring, the city of Chicago released a new climate action plan. It aims to lower the city’s carbon emissions 62% in less than two decades. But this is far from the first time Chicago has laid out ambitious climate goals and those goals haven’t always been met. Reporter Monica Eng wrote about this for Axio Chicago and Monica joins us now for our weekly climate conversation. Monica, nice to have you back.

MONICA ENG, AXIOS CHICAGO: Thanks, Melba.

LARA: Would you give us a quick rundown of all the climate plans that we’ve seen over the years?

ENG: Sure, back in 2008, Mayor Richard M. Daley put out the first Climate Action Plan. Then in 2015, Mayor Rahm Emanuel created “Sustainable Chicago,” and then later in 2019, he revised those goals again with “Resilient Chicago” and then Mayor Lori Lightfoot came out with her Climate Action Plan, three years after she was inaugurated.

LARA: And what are the goals in this new plan from Mayor Lori Lightfoot administration compared to those previous goals from Rahm Emanuel and Richard Daley.

ENG: Well, some are more ambitious and some are less ambitious. It seems every mayor’s got their own sort of pet projects. I remember Daley, he was really big on green roofs. He was really big on trees. He wanted to plant 1 million trees over 12 years. But Mayor Lori Lightfoot, for instance, in her budget address, she said she’s looking for 75,000 trees over five years, so many fewer.

LARA: Is there anything about electric vehicles or solar or anything else like that?

ENG: Yeah, actually, Lightfoot’s plan is more ambitious when it comes to electric vehicles. Daley, for instance, said he just wanted to improve the energy efficiency of the city fleet. And then Emanuel said he wanted to transition all of our buses to electric by 2040. Lightfoot pledges to electrify the city’s entire fleet by 2035. And when it comes to more sustainable energy resources, well Daley wanted to retrofit 50% of commercial and industrial buildings for energy efficiency over 12 years by 2020. Lightfoot, she says she wants to retrofit 20% of industrial buildings over eight years and 20% of commercial buildings over 13 years.

LARA: And is the city doing anything to make sure that this time with this plan, the plan will actually get fully followed through?

ENG: Well, yeah, that kind of accountability that can get lost when you just have plan after plan and the next mayor says, “Oh, I’m not responsible for the last guy’s goals.” That has been a problem that activists and in fact, many of the stakeholders who are working on the Lightfoot plan had mentioned. And so in that plan, they say they want to find mechanisms for continuity and accountability. And I asked the mayor’s office, “Okay, exactly. How are you going to do that?” They said they’re still working on it. So they haven’t gotten back to me. But I have noticed that when mayors have signed on to outside agreements with councils of mayors or let’s say to the Paris accord, usually their successor will say, “Okay, we will follow that.” So outside agreements can help.

LARA: And in your reporting, you actually talk to an advocate who said the best option would be something more permanent than the system of constantly changing action plans from one administration to the other. What do they tell you?

ENG: Absolutely. That was Christine Nannicelli from the Sierra Club, Illinois. And she said, you know, it’s all well and good to have them sign on to these outside agreements or put out another Climate Action Plan. But when the rubber hits the road, she wants to see these goals turn into ordinances and laws with line items in budgets that say: and here’s how we’re going to pay for it.

LARA: Monica Eng is a reporter for Axios Chicago. Thanks for joining us.

ENG: Thank you, Melba.

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