EUGENE (AP) - The University of Oregon plans to join a growing list of colleges nationwide to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and fight global warming.

University President Dave Frohnmayer says Oregon will participate in the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment, a program aimed at significantly reducing carbon-based emissions.

More than 100 institutions already have signed the program's pledge, including Lane Community College and Oregon State University.

The commitment is an effort to put colleges and universities at the front of efforts to reduce heat-trapping greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide.

“Addressing climate change in our curriculum as well as campus operations is an urgent and integral part of our mission,” Frohnmayer said in a statement released Tuesday.

Frohnmayer was scheduled to formally announce the commitment Wednesday afternoon with Eugene Mayor Kitty Piercy, who is unveiling a new initiative for city residents.

Piercy will ask the people of Eugene to take a new step each month toward reducing their carbon emissions, an effort she believes will bring a measurable reduction within months.

The campus climate commitment doesn't set a hard deadline for achieving the goal of “carbon neutrality,” which is when all greenhouse emissions either are eliminated or are offset by purchasing carbon credits - paying someone to make cuts some place else.

Under the pledge, universities agree to set up a planning structure within two months, complete a greenhouse gas inventory within one year and come up with a plan to become carbon neutral within two years.

Steve Mital, co-coordinator of the UO's environmental leadership program, said the school already is a leader in sustainability. It recently completed a lighting upgrade that cut energy use, provides free bus passes to all students and staff, buys 100 percent wind power for the student union, recycles half of all waste and has many other projects under way or in planning.

But those steps will make the challenge of finding additional reductions more difficult.

“The easiest 20 percent to reduce is the first 20 percent,” Mital said. “We've already done that and beyond. So our challenge is to take the next step.”