FLAGSTAFF, AZ – Officials in Flagstaff, Ariz., agreed to undergo a major push to inventory pollution sources and limit their future output in a continuing effort to ‘go green.’ The City Council signed the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, committing the city to meet or beat goals in the Kyoto Protocols, which mandate reductions in greenhouse gases to seven percent below 1990 levels by 2012. The only other Arizona city to have signed the Mayors Agreement is Tucson, but 261 other cities across the nation are on board.

The first step for the City of Flagstaff will be hiring a consultant to do an inventory of the city’s current carbon dioxide emissions and map out ways to lower them. Suggestions include retiring some of the city’s vehicles early and replacing them with hybrid vehicles.

The federal government has refused to agree to the 1997 Kyoto Protocols, an international treaty that attempts to limit greenhouse gases that are widely believed to cause global warming.