North Carolina Construction News staff writer
Raleigh is one of 25 cities selected to join the new Bloomberg American Sustainable Cities initiative, a program to help cities with local solutions to build low-carbon, resilient, and economically thriving communities. Raleigh Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin announced yesterday.
The initiative will provide $200 million to selected cities to find solutions in the buildings and transportation sectors through partnerships. Partners include PolicyLink, Bloomberg Center for Public Innovation at Johns Hopkins University, and Natural Resources Defense Council.
Initiatives could include:
- Developing affordable, sustainable, and energy-efficient housing
- Increasing equitable access to electric vehicles and infrastructure
- Accelerating the transition and expanding access to clean energy
- Enhancing programs to reach a diversity of entrepreneurs, such as the Impact Partner Grant and the Small Business Toolkit
Also, a Bloomberg Philanthropies-funded innovation team will bolster Raleigh’s capacity to deliver programs such as residential solar energy to communities where these solutions seem out of reach. This mitigates climate impacts and improves equity. Raleigh will also receive customized policy and technical assistance in collaboration with community organizations to mobilize public, private, and philanthropic investments.
Implementing Raleigh’s Community Climate Action Plan was approved to reduce community-wide greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2050, addressing equity and environmental justice and building community resilience to the impacts of climate change;
More than $400 billion in federal funding is available to local governments through the Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act. The Bloomberg initiative aims to help cities access and implement this historic funding for critical local projects, especially in disadvantaged communities overburdened by pollution. In Raleigh there are already several examples of using federal funding for climate action.