Title
Thurston Climate Mitigation Plan Briefing
Recommended Action
Information only. No action requested.
Report
Issue:
The City is participating in a regional climate mitigation planning effort, which intersects with the PRAC’s work and interests.
Staff Contact:
Susan Clark, Engineering and Planning Supervisor, Public Works Water Resources, 360.753.8321
Presenter:
Susan Clark
Background and Analysis:
Regional Climate Mitigation Planning
In April 2018, Thurston County, Olympia, Lacey, Tumwater and Thurston Regional Planning Council (TRPC) signed an Interlocal Agreement to complete Phase I of a regional Thurston Climate Mitigation Plan, with TRPC leading the effort. Phase I work resulted in the following regional greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets:
• 45% below 2015 levels by 2030
• 85% below 2015 levels by 2050
In November 2018, Olympia and the other regional jurisdictions approved a Phase II Interlocal Agreement addressing the development of the Thurston Climate Mitigation Plan.
Following a public outreach effort, including two virtual open houses, the Steering Committee, consisting of elected officials and key staff, approved the Thurston Climate Mitigation Plan on December 10, 2020 for formal consideration by each individual jurisdiction. Consideration of Plan acceptance by the Olympia City Council is scheduled for February 2, 2021.
Final Thurston Climate Mitigation Plan, December 2020
The Plan lays out a road map for continuing regional collaboration on reducing local greenhouse gas emissions. It is intended to provide Olympia and its project partners with a suite of solid strategies that will guide next steps, not lock the jurisdictions into specific actions that may not make sense as the details are worked out.
The framework for reducing local greenhouse gas emissions presented in the Plan includes:
• Greening our grid
• Shifting energy sources
• Living lighter
• Storing carbon
• Building local capacity
Each action included in the Plan will require additional work to understand its feasibility, cost and impacts as implementation is considered. As a first step in this work, the project partners have grouped each action into the following general implementation approaches:
• Legislative agenda
• Regionally coordinated
• Individual jurisdiction
• Supporting partner
A Phase III Interlocal Agreement addressing implementation is being finalized and will be considered for approval by each jurisdiction.
Plan actions such as those related to maximizing tree canopy on jurisdiction owned or managed land and coordinating and increasing walk/bike infrastructure are likely to intersect with PRAC’s interests as Plan implementation begins.
Internal City Coordination
To ensure coordination occurs on climate issues as the mitigation plan was developed, the City of Olympia Executive Team formed an internal Climate Action Workgroup. To date the Workgroup has:
• Developed a list of Early Climate Actions and begun action implementation
• Provided feedback on implementation issues associated with the narrowed list of assessed actions.
• Provided input on priority actions for implementation during 2021 and 2022.
Options:
None - briefing only
Financial Impact:
None from this briefing
Attachments:
Link to Thurston Regional Mitigation Plan
Link to City’s Climate Change Response page
<https://www.trpc.org/1026/Final-Plan>
<https://olympiawa.gov/community/climate-change-response.aspx>