Community Climate Action Plan

Community Climate Action Plan

Climate action requires the collective action of everyone globally, including individuals, governments, private businesses, and the non-profit community. The Town of Boone recognizes the important role of local government in community climate action and is in the process of preparing the Town of Boone's Community Climate Action Plan (CCAP), which will begin to address the challenges that climate change presents to our town and to the High Country region. The role of government, while important, is small in comparison to the actions that everyone must take. The Town of Boone's CCAP plans to provide an evaluation of the community greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, strategies, and actions to reduce emissions; an understanding of the role of equity and the implications of climate change on vulnerable communities; and an overview of the impacts of climate change and how it affects Boone's overall community resilience.

First Public Input Session

On June 26th, 2023, Town of Boone staff hosted the first public input session for the Community Climate Action Plan. During this session, George Santucci presented the GHG Emissions Inventory Presentation (PDF). Afterwards, community members were able to give input on actions they already take or can take. Community members were also able to provide comments which Town staff have complied that data, which can be found in the June 26 Public Input Session CCAP Statistics (PDF).

Second Public Input Session

In July 27th, 2023, Town of Boone staff hosted the second public input session for the Community Climate Action Plan. During this session, an update on what the Town has completed was presented. Additionally, the following was shown:

• After switching to the Green Power Program, the Town of Boone's municipally produced GHG's were reduced by approximately half!
• Strategies developed in partnership with ICLEI were presented, which, if implemented, would reduce the Town of Boone's municipally produced GHG's by 74% from 2020 by 20230.
• Strategies developed in partnership with ICLEI were presented, which, if implemented, would reduce the Town of Boone's community-wide produced GHG's by 52% from 2020 by 2030.

This is such a big step in the right direction! To review the presentation, which lists the strategies, please see the July 27 Public Input Session CCAP Presentation (PDF). Similar to the previous public input session, community members gave input to actions which they already take, or are willing to take. Please see the statistics from the responses gathered from community members in the July 27 Public Input Session CCAP Statistics (PDF).

Next Steps

The Town of Boone is currently in the data-gathering portion of the Community Climate Action Plan process.  This includes the processing and evaluation of the following types of data:

1. GHG Emission Inventory town-wide
2. Creation of models to accurately represent the areas in which we need to tackle first in regards to emissions
3. Public meetings will be held in order to achieve maximum resident engagement
4. A finished product that will guide the Town on actions we need to take will be hosted on the Town's website

Steps 1 through 3 are completed! Town staff is now working on completing Step 4!

The Community Climate Action plan will be referred to in the Town of Boone's updated Comprehensive Plan. To learn more about the Comprehensive Plan's planning process, please visit the Comprehensive Plan Progress and Updates webpage.