Austin Climate Equity Plan
The Austin Climate Equity Plan[1] was initially proposed in 2015 [2] but was updated in 2017 and finally adopted by Austin's City Council on September 2021. The plan highlights the impacts of climate change through the inequality felt by community members, suggesting the goal of equitably reaching net-zero community-wide greenhouse gas emissions by 2040.
The plan is composed of 17 goals to be archived by 2030 and 74 strategies to get implemented throughout the span of five years; among those, are the creation of Green Jobs through Entrepreneurship, Sustainable infrastructure building, Transportation Electrification, Land use, Food, and Product Consumption.
Drafting the Plan
With the input of nearly 200 community members with a unique perspective on economical challenges and barriers facing residents; The City's Equity Office was a key player in setting the foundation for this planning process and in guiding the City's Office of Sustainability (OOS). Shane Johnson, Clean Energy Organizer with the Sierra Club's Lone Star Chapter and Co-chair of the Steering Committee described the plan as:
"The foundation for not only centering racial equity but also for prioritizing racial equity both in the implementation of and future climate policy of the city".
Historically Austin has been one of the most economically and racially segregated cities [4] in the U.S. since 1928; which has driven and maintained the dynamics predicting a person's quality of life and impacts felt by climate change. The plan starts with a Land Acknowledgment of the original stewards, a way of honoring The Indigenous Peoples of Texas who have been long-standing living and working on the land.
As stated in the plan:
"We acknowledge, with respect, that the land known as Texas is the traditional and ancestral homelands of the Tonkawa, the Apache, the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo, the Lipan Apache Tribe, the Texas Bend of Yaqui Indians, the Coahuitlecan, and all other tribes not explicitly stated. Additionally, we acknowledge and pay respects to the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas, the Kickapoo Tribe of Texas, Carrizo & Comecrudo, Tigua Pueblo, Caddo, Comanche, Kiowa, Wichita, Chickasaw, Waco nations, and all the American Indian and Indigenous People and communities who have been or have become a part of these lands"
Among the 200 community members who contributed to the drafting; The City's Office of Sustainability created its own, six-month paid program called 'Community Climate Ambassadors'[5] to help implement the plan by training its selected members on how to do outreach on climate equity and civic engagement issues by uplifting those in their own communities who have been systematically left out of.
Energy transition to renewable sources
With the plan, the city defined net-zero emissions as the point where all local greenhouse gases, such as those from fossil fuels, agriculture, and landfills, are removed from the atmosphere; highlighting primarily those coming from energy use in buildings and natural gas. [6] The plan's wide-randing goals were rolled back when Austin Energy announced it would not retire its stake in the Fayette Coal Power Plant by the end of 2021; claiming, it was unable to reach an agreement on the closure with the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA), the state agency that co-owns and operates the plant.
Pat Sweeney, Austin Energy's vice president for power production, told KUT. "At the end of the day, we just couldn't come to terms that both parties could agree to, to allow us to exit at an affordable basis and at the timeline that was contemplated" [7]
Austin Energy's commitment to divest and retire from Fayette was a crucial factor of the equity piece of the plan which committed to a "Just Transition"; as it mentions in its letter from the steering committee: "Low-income communities and communities of color must be prioritized to receive the disproportionate benefits of the transition to a pollution-free society to remedy disproportionate harm done historically and presently". Tied to its equity piece, the expected closure of the Fayette Power Project projected an annual reduction of 34% of the city's greenhouse gas emissions. According to the Austin Chronicle, Austin Energy has been working for 20 years to decarbonize its power generation by investing in renewables and more efficient natural gas plants; resulting in Fayette accounting for 80% of AE's emissions, even though it generates only 15% of its total capacity.[8]
Sources
- ↑ https://www.austintexas.gov/sites/default/files/files/Sustainability/Climate%20Equity%20Plan/Climate%20Plan%20Full%20Document__FINAL.pdf
- ↑ https://www.austintexas.gov/sites/default/files/files/Sustainability/FINAL_-_OOS_AustinClimatePlan_061015.pdf
- ↑ https://www.sierraclub.org/texas/blog/2021/09/austin-set-adopt-climate-equity-plan?fbclid=IwAR1CqBNSEpJaHNKZsopY0dUtJFnIQpdZcx5EBCOVZLm8H5h_m21gl-wWr6Y
- ↑ https://austin.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S67C4897
- ↑ https://www.austintexas.gov/page/community-climate-ambassadors
- ↑ https://data.austintexas.gov/stories/s/Austin-Climate-Equity-Plan/f7zt-irg6/
- ↑ https://www.austinmonitor.com/stories/2021/11/austin-will-keep-running-fayette-coal-power-plant-missing-key-climate-goal/
- ↑ https://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2021-11-12/keep-austin-dirty/