Kansas City Mayor Kay Barnes, and University City Mayor Joseph Adams and Maplewood Mayor Mark Langston, both from St. Louis County, are the first to sign a Mayors Climate Protection Ageement in the State of Missouri. The initiative that encourages grassroots leadership in the fight against climate change is being promoted by the Missouri Coalition for the Environment, the Sierra Club, the St. Louis Community Air Project and the U.S. Green Building Council.

The groups are encouraging citizens to convince their government officials that necessary steps to reduce fossil fuel emissions must be taken to address the serious problem of man-made climate change.

Suggestions to reduce city emissions include:

• Convert city fleet behicles to hybrid technology (Ford's hybrid Escape and Mercury's hybrid Mariner are both manufactured in Missouri.).

• Install energy-efficient lighting and EnergyStar appliances in city buildings.

• Offer developers incentives to build LEED-certified energy efficient buildings.

• Install retrofit streetlights with low-wattage, fully shielded fixtures.

• Issue an anti-idling mandate for trucks and buses.

• Plant additional trees and urban green space throughout the city to absorb CO2.

Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels launched the Mayors Climate Agreement on February 16, 2005, the same day the Kyoto Protocol became law for the 141 countries that have ratified it to date. Since Mayor Nickels signed the agreement, more than 180 mayors across the country have joined him, pledging that their cities will reduce fossil fuel emissions to 7% below 1990 levels by 2012.

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