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Overview of the Climate Action Plan and Target to Achieve Carbon Neutrality by 2050
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While the County has been working on sustainability initiatives for decades, a more formalized and focused effort began in December 2020, when a group of concerned Los Alamos County residents submitted a petition to the County Council requesting action on climate change. This petition led to the formation of the Los Alamos Resiliency Energy and Sustainability (LARES) Task Force and a County Council initiative to provide key recommendations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Central to LARES Task Force recommendations was the need for a comprehensive GHG inventory and climate action plan, marking the start of this initiative.
In the summer of 2023, the County hired climate action experts Cascadia Consulting Group to lead this process. The process began by conducting three greenhouse gas inventories - Sector Based Emissions Inventory, County Government Emissions Inventory, and Consumption Based Emissions Inventory. These inventories, along with baseline policy assessments, greenhouse gas and action modeling, and cost analysis, provided a basis for setting targets and identifying actionable climate measures.
Public engagement played a pivotal role throughout the plan’s development. Community input was gathered throughout the entire process including public meetings, focus groups, one-on-one interviews with community partners, community survey, County employee survey, community workshops and an online forum for public comment. Public input was carefully integrated and significantly and shaped the 41 climate actions presented in the final plan.
On November 12, 2024, County Council adopted the climate action plan and the GHG emission reduction target to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 for County; and further moved to maintain BPU’s and Council’s goal in the strategic plan to phase out natural gas by 2070 for residents and businesses, while accelerating the n...
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