Climate plan meeting scheduled for Jan. 14
KINGSTON, N.Y. » The city is embarking on the creation of its Climate Action Plan 2030 to serve as a blueprint for addressing local climate issues and to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions over the next 10 years.
The Climate Action Plan process will include an online public meeting to be held at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 14. The meeting will be co-hosted by the group Citizens for Local Power and include a presentation by the Cadmus Group and Julie Noble, the city’s environmental education and sustainability coordinator, according to a press release from the city. Live Spanish interpretation will be available during the presentation.
Cadmus will provide a broad overview of the planning process and examples of the type of recommendations that could be included in the final Climate Action Plan 2030. A week before the meeting, the city will release a survey for the community to weigh in on top priorities to include in the plan.
To join the online presentation, go to bit.ly/37M5Zmn and use passcode ^5eWgR5u. The public also can join by calling (646) 5588656 and using the passcode 67375477. The webinar ID is 880 3134 1430.
More information also is available online at engagekingston.com/climate-actionplan.
The public will be a major partner in the planning process and will have multiple ways to get involved, including focus groups, town hall meetings and workshops, the press release stated.
“The public is being asked to co-author the Climate Action Plan 2030, which will solidify concrete steps to reach our shared climate goals for our community,” Noble said in a prepared statement. “Creating this document will be a monumental task, and we are asking for the public to tell us what’s important to them and devise a plan for implementation.
“We have an incredible project advisory committee, and we also need the commitment of the broader Kingston community to reach these ambitious goals,” said Noble, who’s married to Mayor Steve Noble.
In 2020, the city used state funding to commission an initial 10-year Climate Action Plan that laid out action-based goals to reduce carbon emissions, the press release said. It said that plan was developed by a climate analyst and addressed a broad range of goals on the city level, such as LED light conversion and a transition to a green fleet for municipal vehicles. With the implementation of many of the goals in that plan, the city achieved Silver status as a Climate Smart Community, the release stated.
The city said the new Climate Action Plan will dive deeper into addressing municipal operations but the primary focus will be on community-based actions such as environmental systems change, addressing policy and practice, and stewarding a cultural shift toward a more sustainable future for Kingston.
“The critical thing here is that for Kingston’s new Climate Action Plan to succeed, everyone has to get into the act by changing their lives and ways of doing things,” Susan H. Gillespie, president of the Citizens for Local Power board, said in a prepared statement. “Done right, the energy transition will mean more jobs, cleaner and healthier homes, and a more livable city for everyone 10 years from now. CLP’s job is to ensure that community voices are heard in every phase of this project.”
The new plan is being undertaken with support from the NoVo Foundation, the city press release said.