City dwellers produce lower CO2 emissions

Recently released and soon-to-be released studies show that people who live in cities and near transit generate substantially lower greenhouse gas emissions, both in the US and internationally. A study by the International Institute for Environment and Development looked at 12 cities in four continents and “found that city dwellers generate far fewer CO2 emissions than folks who live in the suburbs or country,” according to US News & World Report. In the US, the Department of Transportation funded a study that shows that households living near transit produce 43 percent less greenhouse gas emissions than those living in the region at large, according to a brief report from the Center for Transit-Oriented Development (CTOD), a nonprofit partnership of Reconnecting America, the Center for Neighborhood Technology, and Strategic Economics. The study has not been released. However, according to CTOD, it shows that “households in central business districts produce the least emissions of all. Neighborhoods in Chicago’s central business district, for example, produce 78 percent less greenhouse gas emissions per household, the study found.”