Seattle skyline under a partly cloudy sky

CLIMATE ACTION
AND ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE

Every family should have access to clean air and cooling, no matter where they live or what's in their wallet. By accelerating heat pump conversions we can bring life-saving clean air and cooling to homes and workplaces across Seattle, while transitioning them off fossil fuels.

Seattle has begun to turn city-owned community centers into climate resilience hubs, but we can go further. The City can help community-based organizations make clean energy and climate resilience upgrades at their community and cultural centers, too.

Current zoning policy often pits mature trees against affordable housing; Seattle needs both, and lots of new trees to ensure every neighborhood has cool shade and clean air. City leaders have been stalling on updating our land use code for two years. Instead of dragging our feet, let's seize the opportunity to plan for a healthy, climate resilient future with abundant housing and a thriving urban tree canopy.

As mayor, I will collaborate with and support community groups throughout the City, and especially in neighborhoods heavily impacted by pollution and climate change, as they work toward better health outcomes, environmental justice, climate resilience, and ecological balance.

We must make it much easier and safer to get around by transit, bike, walking, and rolling. Most of Seattle’s carbon pollution comes from transportation. Cutting emissions is largely a matter of “mode shift” — changing how people get around — as well as reducing how far and how often they need to travel.

Building affordable and abundant housing and preventing displacement is a vital climate strategy, allowing people to live near where they work, shop, and socialize. Shorter trips mean less driving and more walking, rolling, biking, and riding transit.

As mayor, I will work to create Seattle’s first “superblock” on Capitol Hill, and champion low-emission and low-traffic zones throughout the city. City leaders have been talking about these proven concepts for years. It’s past time for action.

We must improve transparency and accountability. The City hasn’t released any data on Seattle’s greenhouse gas emissions since 2022, or on travel modes since 2019. It’s clear that we are far from on track to meet the City’s official goals, but it’s hard to assess or correct our course when the public doesn’t have access to up-to-date information.

Whether it's upgrading our city for clean energy, planting trees or building out bus lines, climate investments are a huge opportunity to grow a green economy that works for all. As mayor, I will invest in equitable jobs pathways, apprenticeship programs and public investments with Project Labor Agreements to create hundreds of green union jobs for Seattle residents.

Seattle could put City-owned solar panels on every home and business that wants them, and sell clean solar energy back to our grid without raising a penny of property taxes. These are the kinds of big, bold solutions that are needed to address our problems.

It’s 2025. We’re halfway through this crucial decade for climate action. With Trump’s federal administration moving us rapidly in the wrong direction, local action is more important than ever. Seattle should be setting an example for cities around the country and the world.

From dangerous heatwaves to wildfire smoke, we’re already feeling the effects of climate change. In the 2021 heat dome, over 400 Washington residents died, mostly seniors and vulnerable adults in their own homes that lack air conditioning. The City isn’t doing nearly enough to prevent that from happening again, and Seattle’s climate pollution is trending in the wrong direction — rising, not falling.

It’s up to us to protect our families and our kids’ future. But in the past four years, the city has barely budged in its climate goals because current Mayor Bruce Harrell is afraid to stand up to billionaire real estate investors, gas companies, and other wealthy special interests that want to keep us hooked on oil and gas as long as possible. We can do better.