Portland snares international award for leadership on climate change

The city of Portland won a City Climate Leadership Award for its work promoting walkable or complete neighborhoods.

The award was one of 10 granted Monday night by C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, a group of cities around the globe committed to taking actions to forestall climate change.

In Portland, 45 percent of residents live in neighborhoods where most essential services are available within a 20-minute walk. Once called 20-minute neighborhoods, the city now prefers to call them complete neighborhoods.

The city aims to have 80 percent of residents live in such neighborhoods by the year 2035.

Portland stands proudly alongside the global megacities that make up the C40, Mayor Charlie Hales said in a release announcing the award. In Portland, the basic idea is to develop the centers of our existing neighborhoods into highly walkable, lively commercial districts, making it easy and convenient to get to the schools, shops, jobs, parks, coffee and beer that make Portland a great place to live, work and play, Hales said.

Other awardees were:

 Amsterdam: Finance & Economic Development

 Barcelona: Intelligent City Infrastructure

 Buenos Aires: Solid Waste Management

 London: Carbon Measurement & Planning and Air Quality

 Melbourne: Adaptation & Resilience

 New York City: Energy Efficient Built Environment

 Portland: Sustainable Communities

 Seoul: Green Energy

 Shenzhen, China: Urban Transportation

The awards were issued by C40 Board President Michael Bloomberg, the former New York City mayor and head of the Bloomberg business empire; and former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland.

Steve Law can be reached at 503-546-5139 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

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