At Climate Summit for Mayors, Electric Cars Make Their Move

by Katherine Gustafson · 2009-12-19 06:00:00 +0000
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The Climate Summit for Mayors, held alongside the Copenhagen climate summit, has advanced the case for promoting electric cars as a method of combating climate change, according to a press release from the William J. Clinton Foundation.

Fourteen of the Earth's biggest cities formed the "C40 Electric Vehicle Network" to support each other and collaborate with four leading car manufacturers and the Clinton Climate Initiative in taking steps to embrace electric vehicles.

The cities whose mayors have signed on are Bogota, Buenos Aires, Chicago, Copenhagen, Delhi, Hong Kong, Houston, London, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Toronto, Sao Paulo, Seoul and Sydney. Cities need not only support the development of infrastructure for recharging cars along roadways, they also need to provide incentives for individuals and organizations to invest in electric cars so a sufficient demand for the infrastructure can develop.

Each city in the group has agreed to take steps in four areas.

  1. Encouraging development of charging infrastructure and electrical systems.

  2. Simplifying the process to obtaining permits for charging equipment.

  3. Providing incentives to motivate the purchase of electric vehicles.

  4. Writing plans for how to increase demand for electric vehicles in public and private fleets.

Could you see yourself using an electric car? One benefit is that charging stations would smell a lot less gas-y than gas stations. Does electricity have a smell?

Photo courtesy of frankh via flickr

Katherine Gustafson
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