(COLUMBIA, MO) - The Columbia City Council received the latest community greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions inventory at the Monday, Oct. 5 City Council meeting. The City is required to complete GHG emissions inventories to measure progress towards the Council-adopted greenhouse gas emission reduction goals of the Climate Action and Adaptation Plan (CAAP). Communitywide goals are to reduce emissions by 35% by 2035, 80% by 2050 and 100% by 2060.
A greenhouse gas emissions inventory measures the impact of local activities, like those that require the burning of fossil fuels for transportation and energy, disposal of waste into landfills and the treatment of wastewater.
"It is important to inventory our emissions because we cannot manage what we don’t measure," Sustainability Manager Barbara Buffaloe said.
In the report on Monday’s agenda, inventories for years 2016 through 2019 were included. An analysis of the many contributing factors to our community emissions indicates that even with a growth in population, employment, and the impacts of weather, our emissions have decreased by 8.3% compared to the 2015 baseline year. This is the equivalent of avoiding the combustion of 216,967,806 pounds of coal.
The majority of community emissions are the result of energy use, with the bulk of these coming from fossil fuel usage in the production of electricity. Columbia’s municipal utility, which provides more than 75% of the community’s electricity, has reduced the amount of greenhouse gases emitted in the production of electricity by 3% from 2015 to 2019. This 3% reduction is equivalent to every customer reducing their electricity consumption by 15%.
"This inventory gives the community a progress report. This report tells us that we need to move faster to complete the actions in the CAAP and reduce emissions more urgently," Chair of the Columbia Climate and Environment Commission Carolyn Amparan said during the report to City Council.
The Commission also requested the City Council provide direction to all City government departments to assess their 2021 plans to determine how the goals and actions of the CAAP apply and can be implemented in their respective departments.
The GHG inventories follow the Global Protocol for Community-Scale Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventories. They were conducted by the City’s Office of Sustainability and reporting was externally verified through the utilization of the ICLEI ClearPath GHG inventory software. Community members can learn more about the Plan’s efforts and track progress through the website:
CoMoClimateAction.com and
CoMo.gov/Sustainability/Climate-Action.
A copy of the report presented to the City Council is attached.
54°F