Local Official and Climate Change

It is well-known that land use patterns can affect climate change—particularly the relation between land use development and transportation infrastructure. Yet even the most aggressive efforts to address climate change have largely ignored land use. This disconnect was noted in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s most recent series of reports, collectively known as the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5). This Article, adapted from Chapter 5 of Contemporary Issues in Climate Change Law & Policy (ELI Press 2016), seeks to make insights into land use development from the AR5 more readily accessible to the U.S. local official, with emphasis on issues facing local officials in fast-growth cities that have yet to establish a concerted response to climate change