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The 2023 Green Cincinnati Plan sets ambitious goals, including 100% carbon neutrality by 2050 [1]
['Wvxu']
Date: 2023-04-03
Cincinnati officials announced the new Green Cincinnati Plan Monday with ambitious goals to reduce the effects of climate change.
"The continuing, growing threats of climate change require all of us to do something differently and demand more of ourselves," said City Council Member Meeka Owens, chair of Council's first-ever committee focused on climate. "Failure to address this threat of climate change will mean that we will leave a more dangerous world for our children and future generations."
The full plan is available at greencincinnatiplan.org.
The Green Cincinnati Plan is updated every five years and this is the first version to commit to carbon neutrality.
The new plan also includes a goal to reduce carbon emissions by 50% by 2030. The goal set five years ago was an 80% reduction by 2050.
LISTEN: City of Cincinnati rolls out completed 2023 Green Cincinnati Plan
Officials say the plan is focused on equity more than ever before. Ashlee Young of Interact for Health led an Equity Committee as the plan was put together last year.
“Like other issues in our community, climate impacts are not created equal or distributed equally — many of them disproportionately impact our Black and brown communities and the communities with low wealth," Young said. "Every step of the way, it will be important to assess who will benefit and who will be burdened by the decisions we make."
Some of the goals of the plan include increasing tree canopy in neighborhoods with the highest urban heat island effect; increasing funding for neighborhood gardens; and cleaning up what's called "brownfield" properties, or abandoned and/or underutilized properties.
RELATED: A year ago, Cincinnati committed to mostly buying electric vehicles. Turns out it's not that easy
The city's Director of Environment and Sustainability Ollie Kroner says this is a unique moment in Cincinnati's history, with a mayor, city council, and city manager fully on board with climate goals.
"And certainly never before have we had more than a trillion dollars of federal funding flowing into clean climate, technology and infrastructure," Kroner said.
Cincinnati's largest grant from the federal infrastructure law so far is $1.6 billion for the Brent Spence Bridge corridor— a highway expansion project that's difficult to harmonize with the carbon emissions goals of the Green Cincinnati Plan.
"I would say, at a local level, we need to continue to focus on walkable dense communities," Council Member Owens said in response to the question. "We need to continue to look at how we build that [electric vehicle] charging infrastructure. But most importantly, this is about partnership and collaboration. So we need our transportation partners like [Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority] to be having these conversations as well, and I know that they are."
RELATED: Advocates say there's still time to rethink Brent Spence Bridge corridor design
Kroner says about a third of the city's carbon emissions come from transportation, while about 60% comes from commercial and residential buildings.
"You're correct in that most of the federal funding to date has landed outside of urban areas," Kroner said. "But the current wave of federal funding is now focused on urban centers. So we are pursuing those dollars."
The plan is structured on eight focus areas:
Buildings and energy
City operations
Community activiation
Food
Mobility
Natural resources
Resilience and climate adaptation
Zero waste
Goals include:
Electrify 20,000 households by 2030
Obtain 40% of electricity load from clean energy sources by 2030
100% of public schools have safe and accessible outdoor learning spaces by 2028
4,000 individuals trained for green economy jobs by 2028
Increase local food consumption, distribution and production by 100%
Decrease food going to the landfill 50% by 2030
The Cincinnati Planning Commission has approved the new plan. City Council will consider it April 11 in the Climate, Environment and Infrastructure Committee.
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[1] Url:
https://www.wvxu.org/environment/2023-04-03/2023-green-cincinnati-plan-goals-100-carbon-neutrality-2050
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