WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF

One by one major US cities are committing themselves to a green future and every one of them wants to run 100 percent on renewable energy by 2035.

Earlier this month Atlanta lawmakers approved a resolution that puts the city on track to run entirely on renewable energy by 2035, something that Las Vegas achieved last year, and the first stage of the plan will involve transitioning all of the city’s government buildings to renewables by 2025.

“We know that moving to clean energy will create good jobs, clean up our air and water, and lower our residents’ utility bills,” said city council member Kwanza Hall, “we never thought we’d be away from landline phones or desktop computers, but today we carry our smart phones around and they’re more powerful than anything we used to have, now we have to set an ambitious goal or we’re never going to get there.”

Atlanta’s commitment comes just weeks after a similar promise from the city of South Lake Tahoe, California, and twenty six other American cities, but Atlanta will be the first in Georgia to make the move, which, it has to be said makes increasing sense now that solar power is the cheapest form of energy in over 58 countries around the world.

“Just days after hundreds of thousands marched for climate action across the globe, city leaders here in Atlanta are answering the call,” said Ted Terry, director of the Georgia Chapter of the Sierra Club, “and today’s commitment will inspire bold, ambitious leadership from cities throughout the United States and pave the way for a healthier and stronger Atlanta.”

For Atlanta’s part this is all now part of a growing recognition that cities across America have a significant role to play in helping turn back the clock against climate change and embrace a clean energy future – even if they don’t have much, or any, support from government, and in March, a top New York City official, who are rolling out their own renewable energy schemes, called on other officials from other cities across the US to keep fighting climate change with or without the help of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Increasingly it’s looking like the tide is starting to turn on the attitudes towards climate change and climate change action, and those tides, like the ones in Nova Scotia, are helping the US power its way into the future.