By KIRSTEN LASKEY
Los Alamos Daily Post
kirsten@ladailypost.com

In Los Alamos, what is the worth of combating climate change? Just how much are the County and its residents willing to do to eliminate carbon emissions?

These questions were poised during Tuesday’s Los Alamos County Council meeting when Sustainability Manager Angelica Gurule provided an update to the draft climate action plan along with Cascadia consultants.

Gurule described the climate action plan, which has been in development since the summer of 2023, as a map to sustainability in Los Alamos.

“This plan will serve as a road map to reduce our carbon footprint and adapt to the impacts of climate change over the next 25 years,” she said.

While Gurule said many of the actions may seem challenging, she believes federal, state and local policies along with technology will advance to help achieve the plan’s goals.

The community and council are invited to provide feedback, she added. This can be done by going to here.

“Your feedback will directly influence the final climate action plan,” Gurule said.

Cascadia Project Manager Andrea Martin emphasized the importance of public engagement, adding that Tuesday’s presentation will hopefully act as a springboard for everyone to weigh in on the plan.

“Our goals for this presentation today are to provide county council with an update on the climate action plan process and the draft plan in coordination with the launch of our public comment period for the draft plan,” Martin said. “We’ll also provide an overview of the implementation plan for the climate action plan and highlight proposed near-term actions. And we’ll outline next steps in the climate action plan process including upcoming community engagement.”

Since the last presentation to council in March, Martin said the team confirmed emission reduction targets and engaged the community on the proposed climate action strategies through workshops, three focus groups and one-on-one interviews. The input gathered from these three methods is included in the draft plan, she said.

As far as greenhouse gas emission reduction targets, Martin said the draft established 30 percent reduction by 2030 and 80 percent reduction by 2040 and 100 percent reduction by 2050.

“Based on our analysis we estimate that the actions that we modeled would get Los Alamos County about 88 percent of the way toward carbon neutrality by 2050,” Martin said. “The remaining 12 percent reduction would rely on additional federal and state action, technological innovations, regular evaluation of the county’s progress and consideration of other tools and options beyond the actions we are including in this climate action plan.”

The plan is organized into six focus areas, each with one to two strategies. These focus areas are: buildings and energy, transportation and land use, materials and consumptions, natural systems and water, community resilience and wellbeing and crosscutting.

The strategies and actions within these focus areas address root causes as well as actions to increase resiliency of the community to climate change impacts, Martin said.

She added there is an implementation plan that is a road map for how the County will enact the plan, including notes and considerations for community involvement, equity and funding and county leadership and accountability. Additionally, she said there is a matrix, organized by timeframes, that lays key components of each action.

Martin said key components of the whole plan start by setting a context on why the plan is being established, how it builds on existing initiatives and priorities, how it benefits beyond its primary goals of reducing greenhouse gas emission and building resiliency to climate change impacts.

Martin noted Los Alamos and the state are already experiencing the effects of climate change.

The draft provides an overview of these impacts that will likely continue: wildfire and air quality impacts, extreme precipitation and flooding, draught and water scarcity and extreme heat. The draft also identifies key sources of greenhouse emissions in the community. The next step for the plan is community engagement before the final plan is presented to council in the fall.

For this plan to be effective it needs to reflect the values and priorities of the Los Alamos community,” Martin said. “So, throughout the planning process, the County engaged with the community members and County stakeholders to gather input and feedback in the plan.”

What has been done so far to gather community input included a workshop that was both in-person and virtual. Focus groups were also organized.

Martin said the groups centered on working families, young people or those still in high school, young professionals and residents younger than 40 years old and County employees.

Furthermore, she said one-on-one interviews were conducted with a student, teacher, business leader, County employee, engineer, environmental consultant, nonprofit consultant and a former County Councilor.

Key findings from the engagement have shown areas of great interest include energy efficient buildings, affordable housing costs, water scarcity, carbon free energy and education and engagement, Martin said.

After hearing the presentation, Councilor David Reagor asked what the point was of doing any of it. How would local efforts help decrease the world’s temperature, he said, and why spend taxpayer dollars on a climate action plan.

“A lot of the strategies and actions presented here tonight would not only improve quality of life for community members, it should ultimately reduce our energy usage, which is a huge burden for our community and on our grid,” Gurule said. “So, the impacts are further than just reducing CO2…”

Martin added a cost benefit analysis was conducted and it was discovered by avoiding damages done by climate change, this could equate in saving money to the tune of $15 million – not just for Los Alamos but globally.

Besides dollars and cents, council wondered about the community’s response to the climate action plan.

Councilor Suzie Havemann asked how the public’s buy-in was stacking up since participation and support for the plan were so important.

“I think our outreach efforts and what we’ve seen in terms of response from the community has been normal,” Gurule said. “… What we do have planned is to continue to bring awareness to this topic. We will be at the Farmers Market for the next four weeks, possibly at the summer concert series – just trying to meet the people where they are.”

Martin added they are trying to reach diverse groups of people.

“This is just the beginning of a long journey,” she said.