White House Names Portland ‘Climate Action Champion’

Wednesday, December 03, 2014

Kirsten Nicolaisen, GoLocalPDX Digital Producer

Photo Credit: iStock

The White House announced Wednesday morning that Portland is among the first group of "Climate Action Champions."

The White House singled out Portland as a regional leader for greenhouse gas reduction and climate change mitigation. Portland's 2015 Climate Action Plan is a strategy to put the city on a path to achieve an 80 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

The Climate Action Champions competition was created to identify and recognize local climate leaders and to provide federal support to help those communities further their climate change ambitions.

"Climate change is a world-wide threat, but as President Obama has said, international leadership begins at home," said Mayor Charlie Hales. "We are honored by this, but it just means the pressure is on to work harder, and to think smarter, to demand more of ourselves."

Portland was also among the 10 cities to receive the City Climate Leadership Award in 2014. The awards honored cities all over the world for excellence in urban sustainability and leadership in climate change. Portland was honored alongside cities such as Barcelona, Buenos Aires, London and Amsterdam.