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Santa Monica Mayor Pam O’Connor announced last month that Santa Monica is joining about 10 other cities in drafting a resolution that will commit those who sign on to it to strive to reduce industrial gas emissions, which many scientists say contribute to global warming.

O’Connor was responding to an initiative by Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels to get cities to adopt at least the goals set by the Kyoto Protocol.

The Kyoto Protocol, which went into effect Feb. 16, is an international treaty that sets deadlines for the reduction of industrial emissions.

Currently 140 countries have ratified the treaty. The United States in 1997 signed the agreement but retracted its support in 2001.

“From Mayor Nickels’ point of view, if the federal government won’t take the step and do the right thing to sign on to this protocol, cities can do it,” said Marianne Bichsel, a spokeswoman for Nickels.

Craig Perkins, a spokesman for O’Connor, agreed that the federal government isn’t taking the necessary action to protect the environment and that cities need to assume responsibility.

“We are going to have to do what we can do within our communities,” Perkins said.

Global warming is a particular concern for Santa Monica and other coastal cities because it raises the sea level and contributes to melting the ice cap, Perkins added.

“Every year that goes by without communities taking action means that cities like Santa Monica which sit on the coastline are facing higher and higher risks,” he said.

Four years ago, Seattle agreed to meet targets set by the Kyoto Protocol.

This year, on the same day the treaty went into effect, Nickels announced that he will work to get 140 U.S. cities – the same number of countries that ratified the treaty – to adopt equal or more aggressive environmental goals.

Thus far, Santa Monica and about 10 other cities have signed on to the initiative.

“If we get enough cities to do it we can make a real impact,” Bichsel said.

Nickels plans to present a resolution to the U.S. Conference of Mayors in June establishing a coalition of cities, known as “the Green Team.” Though the details of the resolution are not complete, cities wishing to join will have to agree to take active steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

O’Connor will be present at the conference and will support the resolution, Perkins said.

In addition, O’Connor’s commitment to this initiative falls in line with Santa Monica’s other ongoing environment-friendly policies that directly or indirectly decrease gas emissions, Perkins said.

“The Kyoto Protocol is actually in our mind a pretty easy to achieve target, so we probably as a community will be adopting something more aggressive,” he added.

This year, Santa Monica is expected to institute reduction targets for both the community and the city’s operations that exceed the protocol’s target of a 7 percent decrease in emissions.

Among other programs, the city will offer incentives to encourage energy and water efficiency and will look into constructing solar electric panels to produce clean electricity locally, Perkins said.

In addition to this initiative, other efforts are being made by state and local governments to reduce air pollution.

In July 2002, the state approved a legislation – known as “the Pavley bill” in reference to its sponsor Fran Pavley, a California assemblywoman – which will reduce carbon dioxide emissions from trucks and cars by 22 percent by 2012 and 30 percent by 2016.

“There is no way this country can effectively fight global warming without addressing pollution from cars (and) trucks,” said Daniel Hinerfeld, a spokesman for the Natural Resources Defense Council, which co-sponsored the law.

This law is one step in a long-term process, Hinerfeld said.

Currently, the auto industry is challenging the law in a suit filed in December in a federal district court.

In Seattle, Nickels plans to work with the state legislature to institute standards, modeled in part on the Pavley bill, that require lower emissions from cars sold in Washington.