Climate policies

Despite its reputation as ‘the Emerald City’ in ‘the Evergreen State,’ Seattle has been losing trees. A long-awaited update to the city’s tree protection ordinance will be voted on by Seattle City Council next week.

Olympia, Wash., is what some call a “sea level rise city.” But elected officials there have only just begun to put a price on the cost of adaptation to climate change.

For the first time Washington state will lease public timber lands as carbon sinks – preserving older forests to absorb greenhouse gas emissions and fight climate change. It will use carbon markets to generate income from stands of timber by not cutting them down. The Department of Natural Resources will sell leases on 10,000 acres of its most ecologically-valuable forests in Western Washington.

The international shipping industry remains exempt from climate accords such as the Paris Agreement. A new campaign is pushing retailers and shippers to do what it takes to achieve zero-emissions shipping by 2030.

Tacoma famously declared a climate emergency two years ago. It came the same day the Puyallup Tribe made an emergency declaration of its own – all aiming to restrict fossil fuel developments in the tideflats and the port at the heart of the city. But the Tacoma City Council is stuck in a holding pattern.

"No one got everything they wanted, but we have a very good compromise on the table. … Please pass this ordinance as amended July 13."That was the mantra…

It’s a small step, but an important one in the fight to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Seattle City Council on Monday unanimously passed a new building…