Category Archives: Open Space and Environment

Open Space, Environment and Sustainability refers to environmental matters, climate protection, climate change, forestry, waterfront, heritage trees, open space, parks, rivers and lakes, aquifers, water quality, trash, recycling and compost, sustainability, cemeteries, and related matters.

Oped: G20: Are you ready to save the planet?

By Mayor Adler

As Mayor of Austin, I have committed myself to fight for a better future for our children, by protecting our environment. Austin has committed to achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, and recently we expanded our municipal utility’s use of wind and solar power. Every day we take active strides to limit our emissions and reduce our carbon footprint. Today, I have decided to commit with 40 other mayors around the world to ask the G20 heads of state to make sure we don’t give up on our planet, and that they commit to maintain the Paris Agreement. I need your support, as citizen of Austin and of the world to make the world leaders hear our call for a strong response to climate change.

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Oped: Why Austin is leading the charge to create a coal-free America

By Mayor Adler and Mike Bloomberg

Three years ago, Austin City Council made an ambitious pledge to have over 50 percent of its power come from renewable energy by 2025 — and to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. And last year, Austin Energy’s rate case settlement began to finance the shuttering of the coal-fired Fayette power plant. All the while, Austin has become one of the fastest-growing economies in the U.S.

Switching to clean energy has been an important part of this success, and many other cities and towns are following the same strategy. Of course, as with any major innovation, the proliferation of clean energy has led to job shifts. The coal industry, in particular, has faced growing challenges in the face of this progress.

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