On June 30^th, the Bloomberg Philanthropies-funded American Cities Climate Challenge (ACCC) came to a close after three and half years of work. Philadelphia is one of 25 cities that participated in ACCC, which aimed to accelerate and support cities’ impact on a global scale. ACCC supported cities on a variety of actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the buildings and transportation sector while also improving public health, creating economic opportunity and creating more equitable cities.

In all, Climate Challenge cities’ total emissions reductions are projected to surpass the target of the Paris Climate Agreement, with an estimated 32% reduction from 2005 levels. Together, these cities helped generate 800MW of renewable energy, installed over 11,000 new electric vehicle charges, and trained or upskilled 800 workers in green jobs.

Philadelphia has been a Climate Challenge leader with many achievements during the project, including:

• Passing and finalizing rules for the Building Energy Performance Policy, which will reduce emissions equivalent to taking 40,000 cars off the road, and create 500 jobs
• Launching the Climate Collaborative of Greater Philadelphia to help large institutions act on climate goals, leading to the collective purchase of 300 MW of renewable energy
• Conducting the PGW Business Diversification Study to identify new business models for the city’s municipally-owned gas utility that support the City’s carbon neutrality goal
• Developing and releasing the Municipal Clean Fleet Plan, laying out a strategy to transition the City’s fleet of 6,000 to clean and electric vehicles
• Supporting the improvement of 3 miles of bus / transit lanes in Center City

While the ACCC has come to a close, we want to take a moment to thank the many ACCC partners for their support in this important work. With much more work ahead to tackle the climate crisis, we look forward to continuing these partnerships in the years ahead.