On November 10th, the Bainbridge Island City Council approved the first-ever Bainbridge Island Climate Action Plan (CAP). This plan is a culmination of a three-year effort by the Climate Change Advisory Committee (CCAC) working with City staff, community stakeholders and the public.
The CAP has three overarching goals:
Mitigation: Reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 90% by 2045 compared to 2014 levels with interim milestones of 25% reduction by 2025 and 60% by 2035 compared to 2014 levels.
Adaptation: Bainbridge Island is climate savvy, and can withstand the impacts of climate change.
Community Engagement: COBI inspires community action and partners with local and regional organizations to take meaningful and equitable climate change mitigation and adaptation actions.
The CAP contains over 170 actions and includes 18 immediate actions the CCAC believes are important to initiate over the next 12 months to help kickstart implementation of the CAP.
Examples of the 18 immediate actions are to: 1) develop a “climate lens” that can be used by the City when making decisions; 2) hire a Climate Mitigation and Adaptation Officer to help in the implementation of the CAP; 3) develop a Clean Energy and Building Fund to provide resources to residents and businesses to make their homes and businesses more energy efficient; 4) develop a plan to transition the City fleet to all electric vehicles; and 5) develop an ordinance to ban single-use plastics.
The City and CCAC are planning two Community Meetings on Wednesday January 13th from 5:30 – 7:00 pm and Saturday January 23rd from 10:00 – 11:30 am. The purpose of the meetings is to roll out the actions in the CAP and to answer questions community members have about the CAP.
For more information on the CAP you can go to: https://www.bainbridgewa.gov/922/Climate-Change-Advisory-Committee.