We need our community to show up TOMORROW, Tuesday 10/21, at the Durango City Council’s meeting to express your concern for climate change and greenhouse gas emissions.
INFO:
Where? Durango City Hall, 949 E 2nd Ave, Durango, CO 81301
When?
- 4:45pm: Meet us outside city hall with protest signs urging climate action! During this time you can also sign up for public comment if you live within city limits.
- 5:30pm: Those who are commenting can move inside to make their public comment. Please see the below list of optional talking points, but the most important thing you can do is to convey to the council that climate change and greenhouse gas emissions are important to our community.
Why are we showing up? The city committed to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030 and 100% by 2050, but by their own accounting they have only reduced 10% since 2016. In order to make our goals and meaningfully fight climate change, council needs to understand how important this issue is to our community.
#1 Ask: City council must meet its GHG reduction goal of 50% by 2030, and to do so should 1) appropriate more funds to the sustainability department and 2) prioritize sustainability accountability in the review of the city manager.
Additional optional talking points:
- Co-Benefits of reducing GHG emissions: Reducing local emissions have huge co-benefits for our community’s health and well-being. For example: electric cars create less air pollution, indoor air quality is better when buildings like schools switch from gas to electric, heat pumps increase reliability and security, and electric efficiency lowers utility bills.
- City commitments
- Money to sustainability department: Compared to other Colorado Communities, Durango significantly underfunds its sustainability, and our goals will not be met without adequate funding. La Plata county is a leader in oil and gas regulations, Durango ought to join them in climate leadership. Over the years, we have put forth multiple funding source ideas including the sustainability fee increase and LPEA’s million dollar franchise fee agreement. At this point, it is on council to find where in the budget is best to appropriate more funds. The means are less important to us than the end, which is dramatically increasing the sustainability budget.
- Accountability: City council set this goal and is accountable for the lack of effort in meeting it. An underfunded department of one is not an authentic effort to follow through with your commitment. GHG reduction requires efforts to be made city wide and we are urging council to make this a top priority for the city manager and including suitability as an important component of the managers review.
- Ideas for improvements at the city level: Marty is the expert on where we can most effectively reduce our GHG emissions and in his presentation he mentioned the three biggest areas of improvement are energy efficiency, mobility and transit, electrification. All of this requires more funding for the sustainability department, but we should allow Marty as the expert in city emissions to find the best avenue for spending.
- Overall importance of GHG: Spend time talking about why climate change matters to you and why Durango making an effort to combat climate change is important in your eyes.
Questions?
Contact Emelie Frojen at emelie@sanjuancitizens.org.
