(BLOOMINGTON) – Tonight, City of Bloomington Economic and Sustainable Development Director Alex Crowley announced a significant deliverable from the 2018 Sustainability Action Plan with the presentation of the results of the 2018 Greenhouse Gas Inventory report to the public at City Hall. The full report can be found here.
The goal of the Greenhouse Gas Inventory is to establish Bloomington’s actual trajectory of emissions using a consistent, globally accepted method for cities to calculate and report emissions. This method is aligned with the Local Governments for Sustainability (or ICLEI) standard, making comparisons between cities across the globe standardardized, accurate and meaningful.
Prior to the announcement, Mayor John Hamilton commented, “The urgency of addressing global warming and climate change can hardly be overstated. Science tells us that a temperature increase of just 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit above pre-industrial levels will initiate and accelerate a series of cataclysmic effects including species loss, heat waves, rising sea levels, flooding and increases in ocean acidity. This report will help us right here in Bloomington to track our greenhouse gas emissions with a goal to reduce our community greenhouse gas emissions by 11% by 2023, compared with 2016 levels.”
The Greenhouse Gas Inventory is one of many activities from the Sustainability Action Plan that the city will be implementing. The Sustainability Action Plan is available at https://bloomington.in.gov/sustainability/action-plan.
A second major climate-related announcement is the undertaking of a Climate Vulnerability Assessment. This study, to be completed by 2020, will provide a detailed review of anticipated climate-related risks to people, infrastructure and natural resources in Bloomington and Monroe County. Climate change will disproportionately affect individuals who are already vulnerable and less able to respond to and adapt to climate hazards such as flooding and severe heat.
