Draft Climate Action Plan Released for Comment
January 11, 2023 - As part of the process to develop the City’s first-ever Climate Action Plan, the draft plan is now published and available for community review.
Over the past 14 months, City staff have identified the priorities, challenges, and opportunities residents see in the fight against climate change through online and mailed surveys, community workshops, and wide-ranging public feedback. This input helped the project team and City Council develop a suite of goals, targets, and actions that demonstrate our commitment to reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
The Draft CAP sets Mercer Island on a realistic and defined path to transition to clean energy sources, electrify transportation, enhance stormwater and tree planting programs, reduce waste, and strengthen our climate change preparations. In order for this plan to succeed, community engagement will continue to be critical: visit the project's Let’s Talk page for links and details on how to provide your feedback. The comment period runs for four weeks and will conclude on February 7 with a Public Hearing at that evening’s City Council meeting - anyone may attend in person or online.
In alignment with neighboring communities, the King County Growth Management Planning Council (GMPC), and the King County-Cities Climate Collaboration (K4C), the City of Mercer Island has established a goal to reduce community GHG emissions 95% by 2050, with interim targets of 50% reduction by 2030 and 75% reduction by 2040, compared to a 2007 baseline. The Climate Action Plan outlines a roadmap for meeting this GHG emissions reduction commitment as well as achieving other important resiliency goals for the community, including preparing for unavoidable climate impacts.
The CAP is a long-term planning document that organizes GHG reduction actions and resiliency measures in a strategic manner and takes into account near-term and long-term resource needs alongside other considerations. City staff expect to deliver an annual progress report to City Council, provide online performance data updates to the public each year, and update the CAP approximately every 10 years.
Learn more on the project's Let’s Talk page.
