The Charlottesville Climate Action Plan is 97 pages long and chock-full of graphs, charts, and infographics. While the plan will affect everyone who lives in the city, the document can hardly be considered digestible for the average resident.
On February 8, the Piedmont chapter of the Virginia Sierra Club attempted to rectify this. The nonprofit hosted a Zoom meeting with city employees to help demystify the Climate Action Plan.
“The point of this presentation is not to bore you for 45 minutes with slides and talking,” said Kristel Riddervold, the environmental administrator for the city. She said her goal was to “have a productive question-and-answer session.”
The objective of the Climate Action Plan is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 45 percent by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. The plan, formally adopted on January 17, is still in its early stages. Riddervold described it as “a high-level strategic roadmap” and a “dynamic document.”
“We are working to develop measurable success indicators for each key action,” explained Emily Irvine, climate program specialist for the city. “It’s not cut and dry … each action has a sort of different success indicator that we are trying to figure out and also learn how to share with our community because reporting and accountability is a big part of this,” she said.
Kirk Bowers inquired about tax credits from the federal government for residents who purchase sustainable products like e-bikes and solar panels. “A lot of the guidelines are pending … so as soon as we know those, we want to connect people with them,” said Riddervold. “And it’s frustrating, because there was a lot of excitement built up around that these things are going to become available. Well, they kind of are, they also kind of aren’t.”
Linda Goldstein asked about the link between pedestrian safety and climate change. Riddervold said the plan “emphasizes the need for improved walkability, bikeability, and alternate transportation,” but acknowledged that she “does not have the answer today” on how to assure personal safety.
Riddervold, who admitted there were other questions she could not answer, said she was “not 100 percent sure” when the alternate fuel study would be completed for the possible electrification of the CAT fleet. When discussing the importance of maintaining tree canopies, she emphasized there were “a number of things in the plan that are connected to the tree canopy,” but conceded “there’s only so much space, and there are so many things that everybody wants in that same space.”
Executive Director of Community Climate Collaborative Susan Kruse told C-VILLE the plan is an “important step forward,” but said “there is still work to do.” Kruse mentioned that the city still owns a gas utility and that First United Methodist Church was blocked from installing solar panels by the Board of Architectural Review.
“We want to make sure we get that rectified and remove those barriers as quickly as we can,” she said.
Matthew Gillikin, co-chair of Livable Cville, echoed that the plan is “an important step in the right direction for the city,” while noting that “it will need fine-tuning over time.”
Other outreach events are planned, including a community gathering on March 15 at Carter Recreation Center. The city is also working on publishing a condensed version of the Climate Action Plan.
Riddervold said the city will “continue to talk about what we are doing with community members, organizations, and partners, and [we] hope they can help with the education and supporting residents to take action and get involved.”