City leaders to discuss priorities in climate action plan

Interim City Manager John Glascock, along with other staff, presented a report to the City Council. The staff wants to create a commission to monitor the city’s Climate Action and Adaptation Plan. The commission would be made up of 12 members appointed by the City Council.

The report recommends the new commission take place of the current Environment and Energy Commission.

The group would monitor and report progress on working toward the goals outlined in the Climate Action and Adaptation Plan to the City Council. According to the report, it would present an annual report, identify opportunities to implement the plan and much more.

Council member Betsy Peters said Sunday she thinks the commission is a good idea but the council should discuss how it wants to structure it and what, exactly, it should do.

Council member Ian Thomas also said he supported the idea to create the group.

“It’s going to take some real hard work. We’re going to have to change the way we do things, both within the city government and within the community as a whole,” Thomas said.

“I do think that the commission is going to be very important for sort of tracking progress and proposing specific initiatives, specific new ordinances and programs that the city will bring in at different times over the next 30 to 40 years to make sure that we hit the targets that we set in the plan.”

He said the commission’s job would be to advise the council on how to stay on target and specific steps to take.

He also said the group could serve as a voice for the public.

“What do people want to do? What do people not want to do? You know, what changes are going to be more supported and other ones we should maybe implement first?” he said.

Thomas said the city will need to make some major changes to reach its goals.

“Transportation contributes a little less than a third of Columbia’s carbon emissions, and we have to get to zero by 2060 as a community,” he said.

He said there are some shifts in transportation that will need to be made.

“They involve significant reductions over time of single-occupancy travel and increases in public transit usage and walking and biking,” he said.

Thomas said the city will have to continue to grow where things are closer together so people will not have to drive longer distances and so walking and biking will make more sense for people’s journeys.

He also said he thinks the city should reinvision how it wants to invest in its long-range transportation plans.

Skander Yalaoui is a Columbia resident who regularly makes an effort to be eco-conscious. He said a commission like this one could make sure the city continues to work toward its goals.

“I think a commission could help the mayor and the office of the city manager, kind of keep them more accountable,” he said.

“Like I said, some accountability. Not just for individuals, by the way, for leadership specifically to make changes. To go out there, research ideas about what other cities are doing, implementing that, you know, ways of implementing it.”

He said the commission should make recommendations so people do not feel so overwhelmed about the topic.

“I think people don’t really know what to do or how to get started or some peripheral things that us as individuals and families can do,” Yalaoui said.

He also said it should make recommendations for local businesses, because their effects on the environment are larger than individuals’.

“I can’t believe our town still allows as many plastic bags in all these grocery stores and all these little small businesses. I think that’s one thing we can do,” he said. “I think it would have a massive massive impact, I think, on the environment.”

The City Council still needs to direct the staff to introduce an ordinance to establish the commission before it can be created.