Climate Action

Climate Action

Global climate change is a reality and represents an ever-increasing threat to the health and well-being of citizens of Edmonds and beyond. Climate change-primarily in the form of atmospheric warming caused by an increase in the level of greenhouse gasses-is estimated by the World Health Organization to be directly responsible for approximately 150,000 deaths per year globally--a number that is expected to increase as our planet continues to warm due to rising levels of greenhouse gas emissions. The City of Edmonds has taken strong actions to locally address the causes of climate change by reducing use of fossil fuels through substituting renewable energy resources supplied to public buildings, improvement of energy efficiency of public buildings, establishment of strong codes for the design and construction of new and remodeled buildings to meet green building standards, support of the Safe Energy Leadership Alliance (“SELA”) opposition to transport of crude oil by rail, and many other actions.

The City of Edmonds has recently begun a new project to evaluate our community’s contribution to climate change and to identify actions the City can undertake to minimize actions that contribute to global climate change.  The current project currently includes the following activities:

  1. Green House Gas (GHG) Inventory
  2. Establishing Targets for GHG Reduction
  3. Reviewing and Updating Policies, Programs, and Actions to Reduce GHG Emissions
  4. Developing a tool and measures for tracking GHG emissions
  5. Updating the Climate Action Plan

In 2017, the Edmonds City Council adopted Resolution No. 1389 committing the City of Edmonds to achieve or exceed at the local level the goals established in the Paris Climate Agreement. This website is intended to provide information related to various climate action activities the City of Edmonds is pursuing, including the items identified above, as well as other initiatives the City undertakes to alleviate the climate change.

Public Meetings and Materials

January 17, 2019 Open House

The City of Edmonds held on Open House where the results of the 2017 Community Greenhouse Gas Inventory were presented, as well as an introduction to establishing science based  targets which will be used to detemine the City's green house gass reduction goals and a policy gap analysis of various existing planning documents.  Links to the materials from the open house are provided below.

The next open house is anticipated to occur this spring which will focus on recommendations for updating the City's Cllimate Action Plan which was last updated in 2010.

Greenhouse Gas Inventory - 2017

The City of Edmonds commissioned a Community Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Inventory to better under-stand local sources of GHG emissions to inform development of a Community Climate Action Plan (CAP).  The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nations body that regularly convenes climate scientists, has identified human activity as the primary cause of the climate change that has occurred over the past few decades which is accelerating in recent years. Consensus statements from the IPCC suggest that human-caused greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) must be reduced significantly – perhaps more than 50% globally, and by 90% in wealthier nations that are the largest emitters – by mid-century in order to avoid the worst potential climate impacts on human economies and societies. The most common international goal to mitigate the worst climate impacts, is to limit global aver-age temperature increases to no more than 2°C (3.6°F) relative to temperatures at the start of the industrial revolution. As of 2018, we’ve already passed the halfway point: average temperatures have in-creased by more than 1°C (1.8°F) since the industrial revolution and are on track to increase to 1.5°C (2.7°F) by 2040. 

It’s with this understanding and urgency that the City of Edmonds commissioned this community greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory. A GHG inventory quantifies the GHG emissions associated with a specific boundary – such as the geographic boundary of a community or operational control within an organization – for a specific period of time such as a fiscal or calendar year. Edmonds’ 2017 Community GHG Inventory is based on City of Edmonds’ geographic boundary and uses data for calendar year 2017.  

The inventory is available for viewing at this link.