Summary
The City of Austin has just released a draft version of the Austin Climate Equity Plan, a visioning document that lays out a path for Austin to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040.
Action Box
Look through the new Austin Climate Equity Plan and then share your thoughts with the city! Click on this box to fill out the survey.
“We recognize that solving climate change is impossible without addressing the injustices that have occurred in our community. In developing the strategies that will help us reach our climate goals, we set out to create
a more inclusive, healthy, affordable and accessible plan for our city. Each goal and strategy in this plan was carefully evaluated to ensure that it would lower greenhouse gas emissions while also addressing racial equity.”
These words can be found in the first few pages of the new Austin Climate Equity Plan, which was just released by the City of Austin Office of Sustainability earlier this week. It was developed over the course of about a year, with support from city staff and community members.
By centering equity in this way, the plan is different than any other climate plan the city has ever produced. And on top of that, it includes Austin’s most ambitious emission-reduction goal to date… net-zero community-wide greenhouse gas emissions by 2040.
To learn more, we sat down (virtually of course) with Zach Baumer, climate program manager with the Office of Sustainability. You can watch a video of our entire conversation below.
Want to read the plan for yourself? You can look through an executive summary here and the complete report here. After you’re done, be sure to share your feedback here.