Mainstreaming Decarbonization in the Capital Improvement Plan: Informing Seattle's Effort to Align Emissions Reduction Goals and Public Infrastructure Investments

Abstract

This thesis explores the potential of Seattle’s Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) to act as a roadmap for local decarbonization investments; mainly following the foundation set by Jan Whittington and Catherine Lynch on the World Bank’s Climate-Informed Capital Investment Planning Guidebook (2015). The paper develops actionable recommendations for city officials to inform their efforts towards enhanced alignment of capital investments and climate objectives, based on analysis of the policy-enabling factors working around the city’s CIP process. These pages analyze the institutional, economic, and technical factors that frame Seattle’s infrastructure investment decision-making processes and how those investments are, or are not, aligned with local climate policy goals; mainly focusing on the years following the 2020 enactment of the city’s Green New Deal.