Come out to City Hall on December 3 -- planning for climate change
By City of Rossland
By Matthew Watkins, Chair of the Rossland Sustainability Commission
From the more mundane impacts of smokier summers and warmer winters, to the life-threatening and economically devastating consequences of record setting flooding and historic wildfires, the impacts of our changing climate can be seen all around us. In an effort to avoid the most severe of these impacts as well as adapt to those already underway, the City of Rossland is developing an Integrated Climate Action Plan.
On December 3rd from 6-8pm at city hall they will be hosting an open house to present a draft of this plan and solicit feedback from the public. This will be a great opportunity to come talk to the team responsible for developing the plan, the city staff tasked with implementing it, and the council members charged with providing the leadership needed to prioritise its recommendations. This is your chance to make sure you are heard.
Thanks to the dedication of our incredible city staff and the responsible leadership of both past and present councils, Rossland has already begun taking important steps in the right direction. The adoption of the 100% Renewables Plan in 2021 set us on a bold path to reduce our community’s emissions to zero within the next 25 years. Building on that work, the development of this Integrated Climate Action Plan is a crucial next step in helping us reach that ambitious goal. This plan not only outlines the ten-year action plan needed to work towards our 2050 goal but also ensures that our efforts to reduce our emissions align with our efforts to adapt to changes already underway.
The Rossland Sustainability Commission has had the privilege of participating in the development of this Plan. We overwhelmingly support the goal of this plan to coordinate climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts across the city’s jurisdiction. Through the process of developing this plan we kept returning to three points we saw as critical to setting it on the right course:
1. While adaptation to the impact of climate change is very important to protecting the health and well-being of our community, we can not lose sight of the need to reduce our emissions. After all, the more we can reduce our emissions, and the faster we can do it, the less damaging climate change will be and less we will need to adapt.
2. Whenever the issue of affordability is considered, it is critically important to remember that the costs associated with acting now will be orders of magnitude lower than future costs of doing too little.
3. Despite the fact that Rossland is only one small town in a global climate crisis, actions taken here are meaningful and needed. With more than 85% of our local emissions coming from the gas we use to get around and to heat our homes, the city’s jurisdiction over zoning and building code can have a big impact on driving down these emissions.
Bold local action here in Rossland works to empower other like-minded jurisdictions to act, the proliferation of which creates the political will needed for provincial and federal decision makers to take effective action.
Something I have come to learn and love about our little mountain town is that a small number of passionate voices, engaging constructively on an issue can have a big impact. If you are aware of climate change and its effects on life on earth, if you know we need to address climate change but don’t know where to start, this is a great opportunity to come out, listen, learn and be heard.
See you on Tuesday.
