Austin Climate Equity Plan
The Austin Climate Equity Plan[1] was initially proposed in 2015[2] but was updated and 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". [3]
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 who have been long-standing living and working on the land.
"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"
Energy transition to renewable sources
With the plan, the city defined net-zero emissions as the point when all local greenhouse gases, such as those from fossil fuels, agriculture, and landfills, are removed from the atmosphere. The plan's wide-randing goals were rolled back when Austin Energy announced
As a crucial factor of the equity piece and as a wealthy city with high levels of emissions; the plan committed to a "Just Transition" which prioritized; 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".
- ↑ 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