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Los angeles weather in june 20211/20/2024 Characteristics of the built environment, such as city geometry, green space, and surface reflectance, play a critical role in not only creating the urban heat island effect compared to rural areas but also resulting intracity variations ( 6). This phenomenon results from several factors, including the heat-absorbing properties of building materials such as concrete, a lack of vegetation, heat generated from human activities, and the city geometry, which traps heat and reduces ventilation due to the close proximity of tall buildings ( 5). One of the major factors that exacerbate this risk in cities is the urban heat island effect, which refers to the phenomenon that urban areas are typically warmer than their surrounding suburban and rural areas ( 4). Heat extremes pose a substantial threat to public health, as they increase mortality and morbidity ( 1), reduce physical work capacity ( 2), and negatively affect mental health ( 3). With more frequent and intense heat waves projected in the future, equitable mitigation measures, such as increasing surface albedo and tree cover in low-income neighborhoods, are necessary to address these disparities. Disparities worsen with higher regional mean surface temperature, with a $10,000 decrease in income leading to ~0.2☌ LST increase at 20☌ and up to ~0.7☌ at 45☌. Lower evapotranspiration resulting from the unequal distribution of vegetation cover is a major factor leading to higher LST in low-income neighborhoods. We found persistent negative correlations between daytime land surface temperature (LST) and median household income across the Los Angeles metropolitan area based on Ecosystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space Station observations from 2018 to 2021. Understanding these disparities is crucial to support equitable climate mitigation and adaptation efforts. Urban environments exacerbate extreme heat, resulting in not only the urban heat island but also intracity variations in heat exposure. Nearly half of the cities procured renewable energy using tried-and-true purchasing and financing methods, helping to set a nationwide record for local government renewable energy procurement in 2020.Cities worldwide are experiencing record-breaking summer temperatures.Cincinnati’s WarmUp Cincy program assists tenants who live at or below the poverty line with in-unit energy equipment upgrades and financial help to pay energy bills.Portland’s citywide network of street improvements have helped to speed transit service and increase transit ridership. Louis’ Building Energy Performance Standard (BEPS) ordinance requires at least 65 percent of the buildings of a certain property type to improve their energy efficiency, thereby reducing greenhouse gas emissions and boosting job creation and economic development. Notably, when evaluating the combined work of all cities, including action taken outside of the Climate Challenge, cities are collectively on track to reduce emissions by 32 percent below 2005 levels by 2025, which will beat the 2025 Paris Agreement goal of a 26 to 28 percent reduction.Įxamples of policy and programmatic initiatives that were facilitated with support from the Climate Challenge include: In total, actions from the Climate Challenge will reduce CO2 emissions by 74 million metric tons from 2020 through 2030, compared to a business-as-usual scenario. Each winning city received a unique package of support, including additional staff capacity, technical assistance from world class partners, access to intensive peer-to-peer networking and support in launching communications, outreach and education campaigns. Participating cities are scaling and implementing climate solutions to help grow the economy, protect public health, and upgrade city infrastructure to meet the needs of the 21 st century.
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