ATLANTA - The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) will join with former President Bill Clinton in an initiative to reduce carbon emissions and increase efficiency in the world's largest cities. The Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI) is a Clinton Foundation program dedicated to making a difference in the fight against climate change in practical and measurable ways.

The CCI-Large Cities partnership is initially targeting 22 of the largest cities in the world - Berlin, Buenos Aires, Cairo, Caracas, Chicago, Delhi, Dhaka, Istanbul, Johannesburg, Lon-don, Los Angeles, Madrid, Melbourne, Mexico City, New York, Paris, Philadelphia, Rome, Sao Paulo, Seoul, Toronto, and Warsaw. Many of these cities will be visited by ASHRAE leaders as part of the initiative later this calendar year. The partnership anticipates that many more cities will join over the next four to six months.

The initiative was launched at a news conference in Los Angeles, where Clinton was joined by London Mayor Ken Livingstone, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. British Prime Minister Tony Blair also attended to show support for the initiative. ASHRAE President Terry Townsend, P.E., was in attendance.

The CCI will assist the large cities in the group in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing energy efficiency. To enable partner cities to do so, CCI will:

Create a purchasing consortium that will pool the purchasing power of the cities to lower the prices of energy-saving products and accelerate the development and deployment of new energy-saving and greenhouse-gas-reducing technologies and products.

Mobilize experts worldwide, including ASHRAE experts, to provide technical assistance to cities to develop and implement plans that will result in greater energy efficiency and lower greenhouse gas emissions.

Create and deploy common measurement tools and Internet-based communications systems that will allow cities to establish a baseline on their greenhouse gas emissions, measure the effectiveness of the program in reducing these emissions, and to share what works and does not work with each other.

Publication date: 09/04/2006