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| Peaceworks Sustainability Coordinator, Laura Wacker, addresses the City Council. |
Peaceworks and
our climate action allies scored a significant victory on June 19 when the
Columbia City Council approved a resolution calling for the development of a Climate Action Plan (CAP).
Columbia joined cities across the nation in embracing the Paris Accord and a resolution was unanimously adopted calling
for a CAP, including a call for citizen input in the process.
Now we are
working to make sure a strong CAP is adopted and implemented. As a first step, we’re asking Columbia citizens to please
reach out to our City Council to urge them to support a Climate Action Plan
that includes going to zero carbon fuel use by 2050. It would be very
helpful if you could let your Councilperson and the Mayor know your support for
bold climate action. You can contact
Council members by clicking Here.
On September 7,
2017, Peaceworks activist Laura Wacker spoke before the City Council urging
them to take strong action. Here is the text of her prepared remarks:
Good
evening. My name is Laura Wacker. I am the Sustainability Coordinator for Peaceworks
and am here to talk about development of the Climate Action Plan that the
Council approved in June.
First
of all, “THANK YOU” for the decision to create the Climate Action Plan and
to the Mayor for joining the Mayors Climate Action Network. We are
excited you are willing to start following through on Columbia’s commitment to
reduce our production of Greenhouse Gases.
As you know, the Council in 2006 voted to do that, but didn’t follow
through with action. This is obvious in
the Emissions Inventory Report that was presented to Council at your last
meeting.
Our
overall emissions have gone up. Per
capita emissions have gone down, but honestly, if it wasn’t for Water and Light’s
energy efficiency programs and renewable energy programs (some of which are on
the chopping block in the current budget plan), we probably would have seen the
per capita emissions go up as well. WE,
as a community, need to do better. When
we compare our per capita Greenhouse Gas Emissions to Lawrence Kansas, Madison
Wisconsin, Urbana Illinois, St Louis and Kansas City we score worse than all except
St Louis.
We
can do better than that, but we need to act in a decisive and bold manner. Climate Change is upon us and we need to reverse
course. Hurricane Harvey is the shape of
things to come if we don’t take drastic measures to reduce our carbon
emissions. How will Columbia handle
torrential downpours at increasing intervals?
If you are not paying attention, you may not realize that the American
media is hardly mentioning the severe monsoon season in Asia with over1200 dead
from flooding, or that the drought in Italy is crippling their food production,
or that a half a million acres of trees have burned in Montana due to
wildfires, or that more trees that have died in the Pacific Northwest due to
climate induced plagues. The recent epic
flooding in Southern Missouri is an example of how climate change can affect
our area. These changes require bold and swift action to protect our citizens
from further climate chaos.
Prior
to Columbia’s recent resolution, groups in Columbia were meeting on this very
subject. We thought we had started down the right road in 2006 when that
Council said they were going to create an action plan but we didn’t make sure
it happened. So, now, we intend to stay
focused on this, and make sure that the follow-through occurs.
We
hope that you will agree with our vision of Columbia becoming a leader in the
Midwest in carbon footprint reduction. A
city like Georgetown, TX, which already fully powers its municipal power plant
from renewable sources, sees its energy policy as an economic development tool and
I think Columbia could do the same. Recently,
even Kansas City resolved to procure 100% of the electricity for municipal
operations from renewables within only three years! Ten US states have set goals of 50-80%
reduction of carbon emissions by 2050. Those are entire states! We have so many advantages in Columbia that
can help us be better than that, be at the forefront of energy conservation –
we would like to see this city commit to 100%
reduction by 2050. We have great
minds at the University, we have a well-educated public and we have the benefit
of having our own utilities at both the city and the university. We really have the perfect scenario to make
this thing work!
We
also have a committed group of people who are members of organizations in the
community who are willing to help you do the work. I want to introduce some of the groups here tonight
who are concerned about what Columbia is doing for Climate Change and I’ll ask
them to stand as I acknowledge their affiliation. Sierra Club, Renew Missouri, Citizens Climate
Lobby, Show-Me Solar, Protectors of Water & Land, People’s Visioning and
Peoples' Visioning lead co-sponsor: Columbia Climate Change Coalition, and Interfaith
Care for Creation. Among these groups
there are several who would desire to be on the planning committee for this
project who have been working or studying in the areas of energy efficiency for
many years.
We
stand together in expressing a deep desire to see the Climate Action Plan
developed as expeditiously as possible. We
represent thousands of citizens in Columbia.
We are here tonight to express gratitude that you have started the ball
rolling to move our city forward in Climate Action. And we are not going to go
away. We expect, for instance, that the City will have a Consultant on-board by
the end of October.
As
our elected council, you have the very important role of setting goals for this
climate action plan. We are hoping that
you will be putting this goal setting on your October calendar. We hope you set the goal of 100% reduction by
2050 and begin working toward this as we move forward. Ways to get the ball rolling would be by
setting new building codes that mandate efficiency, continuing the incentives
for PV rebates (which could actually save the city money in the long run), creating
electric car charging stations and getting all city energy use moving toward
zero emissions. It is a very exciting
time to be working on projects that are not only good for the health of the
planet, but good for the health, safety and sustainability of our city. We are here to help you, and we hope that this process can get moving
as soon as possible.
Thank
you, and I am happy to answer questions.
