photo by: City of Lawrence

In this file photo, Lawrence-Douglas County Sustainability Coordinator Jasmin Moore speaks to the Lawrence City Commission about the timeline of the development of the Climate Action Plan as part of the commission's meeting on Oct. 19, 2021.

The development of a local climate action plan that will call for specific actions from local governments is underway, and a proposal is expected to come before city and county leaders for review this coming spring.

As part of its meeting Tuesday, the Lawrence City Commission received an overview of the main components of the climate action plan and an update on its ongoing development. Lawrence-Douglas County Sustainability Coordinator Jasmin Moore told the commission extreme weather conditions that are already affecting communities have highlighted why development of the plan is such a high priority.

“The reason that we care about this is because it already affects everything else that’s on the top of our priority list,” Moore said. “It affects our families, it affects our health, it affects the economy in our communities. And so that is why developing this climate action plan is so important right now, because all of the issues that we are concerned about as a community are also impacted by climate.”

The city and Douglas County are collaborating on the development of the plan. It will help implement goals included in the city and county comprehensive plan, Plan 2040, which was adopted in late 2019. Plan 2040 calls for the community to identify specific actions to reduce greenhouse gases, risk and exposure to hazards, and to manage air quality to limit outdoor air pollution, excessive greenhouse gases and indoor air pollution.

Moore provided examples of news headlines related to extreme weather from just the past six months and said the plan aims to address extreme weather events and improve the ability of the city and county to cope with or avoid harmful conditions such as flooding, heat and drought. She said that of those three hazards, the most concerning one is extreme flooding.

“We’re already starting to see extreme flooding,” Moore said. “So if you just think in the last three years of the different rain events — and I’m sure that with the rain we had last week — there are people in our community that experienced some of that flooding and the damage that comes from that.”

Moore said it was also important to realize that the consequences of climate change affect communities unequally, and that communities under socioeconomic stress are the least able to adapt, resist or recover from the effects of climate change. She said a main component of the plan is equity, and that the plan is being developed in partnership with the community as a whole and particularly those most affected by climate change.

When it comes to greenhouse gas emissions and the impact that the city and county have on the environment, Moore said some of the biggest opportunities to reduce emissions are through transportation and the energy used to heat and cool buildings.

Commissioners expressed appreciation for the efforts, with Commissioner Jennifer Ananda saying she appreciated that the city was doing outreach specifically to populations that are inequitably affected. Commissioner Lisa Larsen said she also thought the city — which already uses about 98% renewable energy to power its buildings — also needed to stress actions that individual residents can take, such as paying a small monthly fee to Evergy to ensure their household’s energy comes from renewable sources.

Vice Mayor Courtney Shipley said she hoped to see discussion about sustainability in more aspects of city business, such as land use, road construction and neighborhood issues. Mayor Brad Finkeldei said he agreed with his fellow commissioners’ comments and looked forward to seeing the final product.

“We look forward to the continued work and moving forward with this plan,” Finkeldei said.

Moore said public input has begun, including the launch of an initial community survey that can be accessed at lawrenceks.org/climate, and the goal is to have the plan brought forward for consideration in the spring of next year so that it can be used to help inform the decisions regarding city and county budgets for 2023. Both the city and county have budget deliberations in the summer preceding the budget year.