Received from Dennis Murphy, KC Office of Environmental Quality
City climate protection plan goals and how they were going to be established.
The Steering Committee will set GHG reduction goals for the climate protection plan. They've discussed it at their last two meetings, with Bob Berkebile and Bob Mann leading much of the discussion. They are striving to achieve a balance between being bold in setting the bar high enough to have a meaningful impact, while not setting it so high that it proves impossible to generate broad support throughout the community for implementing the plan.
As we developed the preliminary baseline inventory of GHG emissions for KCMO, it was obvious that we could not get reliable data from any year earlier than 2000, so that's the reason it is our baseline year.
What has been suggested by the Steering Committee is separate goals for GHG reductions community-wide (perhaps 20% below the 2000 baseline level by 2020) and for City government operations (perhaps 30% below 2000 baseline levels by 2020). There has also been discussion of perhaps setting some intermediate milestone #s (nothing specific yet).
At last Friday's meeting, Bob Mann also suggested a longer-term goal of KC as a "climate neutral" city and there was some discussion as to what that meant. As Bob Berkebile explained it, that would mean that KC only emits an amount of GHGs that can be absorbed by the planet (via vegetation and the oceans), altho it wasn't clear how to determine what that amount of GHG emissions might be for KC (as our share of worldwide emissions).
We don't expect the Phase 1 GHG recommendations from the work groups by March 6 to achieve the levels of GHG reduction goals that will be set by the Steering Committee, but that will be the objective in the ongoing planning effort. So for now, I look forward to whatever GHG reduction measures you recommend for consideration by the Steering Committee in order to make a start toward achieving significant reductions.
Just to provide a perspective regarding possible goals, if the Steering Committee were to set a 20% reduction goal community-wide, based upon the preliminary baseline inventory #s, that would equal approximately 2.6 million metric tonnes/year in reductions by 2020. If they set a 30% reduction goal for City government operations, that would equal approximately 96,000 metric tonnes/year in reductions by 2020.
I hope this is helpful. We will keep you informed as the Steering Committee establishes the goals.
Thanks,
Dennis