Meeting Time: August 22, 2023 at 5:00pm PDT
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Agenda Item

17. Quarterly Climate Update File ID: 2023-00969

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    Chris Brown about 1 year ago

    This quarterly update is once again a document with little evidence that the City is taking the climate crisis seriously. The latest scientific reports continue to emphasize the need for rapid comprehensive action.
    "Frankly, we are in a dire state," Jim Skea, new Chair of the International Panel on Climate Change,  told CNBC on Monday. "We’ve been making projections about the kind of impacts that will occur from climate change and it was always a kind of future-orientated approach. But it is happening on our TV screens." July 2023 has been has since been confirmed as the hottest month in history.
    This report mentions the City Council adopted Climate Emergency Declaration of 2019, but little evidence in the report that the staff is implementing programs on an emergency timeline. For example the report mentions that 119 out of 2406 City vehicles are ZEVs. That is little more than 5%.
    In addition the report mentions that one Task to be accomplishes is to "Establish and launch the internal Climate Action Task Force, with an initial audit of each department’s performance" to begin in fall 2023, almost 4 years after the adoption of the Climate Emergency Declaration. immediately after that the report indicates that the Task to "Create an internal climate leadership, learning, and collaboration cohort" has been "Postponed."
    The Crisis is now, these lackadaisical approaches must become a thing of the past. Urgent action is needed now to change the culture and practices of the City regarding climate program implementation.
    I would oppose this report, but take a neutral stance because only be receiving regular reports will City Council be able to responsibly discharge your duties to protect the health and safety of our City's residents.
    I hope you read this report and let staff know that they must be more creatives, work closely with the City's many Community Based Organizations and speed up their efforts to reduce GHG emissions.
    The IPCC and other climate scientists have said that catastrophic events are happening faster than predicted, but all is not lost. Rapid action is necessary to met the dire threats we face.
    Skea highlighted that the scale of action needed to meet the goals of the landmark Paris Agreement was not incremental: «It is very ambitious transformational action that is needed.»

  • Default_avatar
    Muriel Strand about 1 year ago

    this staff report describes some tangible steps for the city's direct operations, and an ample amount of ongoing research and consultation with various stakeholders, which latter is very important since the future will be turbulent and 'the plans of men are the jokes of the gods.'
    it's my engineering opinion that plans to replace our fossil fuel lifestyles with PVs, windmills and batteries will run into some formidable and likely insurmountable roadblocks. my comments on item #18 go into more detail on what i foresee.