Portland carbon emissions drop

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Metro is working on a plan to reduce the region's emissions by 21 percent.

Carbon emissions in Portland are down 2 percent since 1990 and 15 percent since 2000, according to a new report out from the backers of the region's Climate Action Plan.

The results fall comfortably below national figures which show carbon emissions still well above 1990 levels, despite a nationwide drop in emissions credited to the slow economy.

Officials from the City of Portland and Multnomah County, who teamed up to create the plan, presented a one-year progress report to Portland City Council on Wednesday, pointing out that although population has grown substantially in the region since 1990, emissions have decreased.

"The economic decline is part of what's going on," said Michael Armstrong, senior sustainability manager for the city's Bureau of Planning and Sustainability. But he added that structural improvements — such as an emphasis on walkable neighborhoods, energy efficiency and solar energy installations — will continue to keep emissions down even when the economy recovers.

The Climate Action Plan, a three-year plan to put Portland on a path to achieve a 40 percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2030, was adopted in October 2009.

The plan calls for more than 100 specific actions — from building bicycle infrastructure to instituting curbside collections for composting food scraps — to be completed by 2012. The progress report shows most of them are underway.

The Climate Action Plan document and the Year One Progress Report are both available on the BPS website.

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