Selectmen OK compromise on climate change

GREENWICH — Students activists who this summer began calling for local action on climate change celebrated as the Board of Selectmen unanimously approved a town resolution on the global issue

The finalized resolution, which represents a compromise between two drafts submitted to the board last month, was approved at Thursday’s meeting at Town Hall after only a few additional language tweaks.

“The product that we finished with is actually much stronger than what we originally had, and I thank everyone who collaborated and was involved in the process,” said Isabelle Harper, founder of the Greenwich Environmental Advocacy Group that created the original ordinance.

“I think this is going to be a really good thing for the town,” said Harper, a 2022 graduate of Greenwich High School.

First Selectman Fred Camillo expressed his support for the resolution.

“This shows that the town takes the environment very, very seriously. And we can lead, but we can do so responsibly and make it local,” Camillo said.

Under the approved resolution, the town pledges to “continue to prioritize” ways to advance sustainability and climate resiliency when town departments develop future plans, budgets and actions.

The resolution acknowledges there might be “other town priorities and policies” to consider, but it also sets goals for developing a sustainability and climate resiliency plan by December 2023. It pushes the town toward carbon neutrality and to “increase community resilience to a changing climate.”

The resolution notes that Greenwich has “experienced extreme weather events, including severe storms, drought and intense heat, which have resulted in increased risks to public health, loss of power and basic utilities, high riverine floodwaters, inland and coastal flooding.”

It also refers to 14 “extreme weather events” that have hit Connecticut since 2012, causing an estimated to $16 billion to $24 billion in flood damage in the Northeast.

The only debate at Thursday’s meeting was over the word “shall” when it came to including strategies for new buildings, energy efficiency, transportation, renewable energy, town operations and other items in the climate resiliency plan.

Saying the word “shall” was too binding for the town, Selectwoman Lauren Rabin changed it to “may” in the final version in a 2-1 vote, with Selectperson Janet Stone-McGuigan voting against it.

“I’m not sure we can plan and flesh out plans for all items listed in what essentially will be 15 months,” Rabin said. “Not to say the town wouldn’t be (able to do it), but to say we will commits us to something that may not happen.”

Stone-McGuigan, who supported the final version, objected to the one change.

Camillo called the approved resolution “a good compromise.”

It is still unclear whether the Representative Town Meeting will take up the resolution. No vote was taken on that issue, and Camillo said after the meeting that the RTM could consider it if it wanted to.

This was the fifth meeting that included discussion on the resolution, which was the subject of intense debate within town. Camillo said they had heard from residents on “both sides” before coming up with the compromise resolution, which was discussed at a special meeting Aug. 2.

The board members saluted the student activists and Camillo crediting them for “scrapping” the original resolution and working with them on the compromise version.

Stone-McGuigan told the students , “You have modeled what a very productive and constructive grass-roots effort can do.”

Town resident Nicole Freitas, a policy intern at Save the Sound who also worked closely on the resolution, told the board to continue its support of climate action.

“The future of Greenwich is in your hands,” she said.