The Climate and Energy Action Plan (CEAP, pronounced “keep”) for La Plata County aims to reduce GHG emissions, while ensuring that these actions provide economic and societal benefits.
CEAP Vision
A Climate and Energy Action Plan that impacts personal, organizational, and governmental policies, practices, and behaviors in a meaningful, measurable, and cost-effective* way to minimize or neutralize local greenhouse gas emissions and to adapt successfully to climate change.
*Note: “Cost-effectiveness” takes external costs–such as, but not limited to, staffing changes and future impacts–into account.
La Plata County and the City of Durango resolved to develop a climate and energy action plan to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions after they both signed the U.S. Mayor’s Climate Protection Agreement. In 2009, the Town of Ignacio signed a resolution to support the U.S. Mayor's Climate Protection Agreement. Under the Agreement, participating cities must strive to meet or beat the Kyoto Protocol targets in their own communities. The City and the County tasked 4CORE with facilitating the creation of the climate and energy action plan. 4CORE was asked to engage volunteers from local municipalities, utility companies and businesses who would then create this plan collaboratively.
Over 1,000 international cities, including over 500 U.S. cities, participate in the Cities for Climate Protection program managed by ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability (formerly referred to as the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives). La Plata County and the City of Durango are members of ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability. In order to join, they each passed a resolution pledging to reduce GHG emissions from their local government operations and throughout their communities.
ICLEI-Government for Sustainability Milestones
* Milestone 1. Conduct a baseline emissions inventory and forecast.
* Milestone 2. Adopt an emissions reduction target for the forecast year.
* Milestone 3. Develop a Local Action Plan.
* Milestone 4. Implement policies and measures.
* Milestone 5. Monitor and verify results.
La Plata County has been recognized as achieving Milestone 1 due to the completion of a draft baseline GHG emission profile and forecast. However, revisions to our inventory were necessary. Therefore, one of the tasks of the Climate and Energy Action Plan (CEAP) Steering Committee was to work through those revisions to finalize the 2005 baseline emissions inventory. The Reductions Targets group of the CEAP then researched the goals of Climate Action Plans from 18 US cities, along with targets of the Western Climate Initiative, the 2030 Challenge, the EPA, and several international communities. Using that information, recommendations from the Baseline GHG Emission Profile and Forecast and committee members’ knowledge, the work group developed the emission reduction targets for our community.
Six overarching strategies have been identified to reach our emission reduction targets.
Recommended Actions Grouped into Six Categories
-
Reduce emissions from local oil and gas production
- Develop renewable sources of energy
- Develop a multi-modal transportation system
- Increase the energy efficiency of buildings and future infrastructure
- Enhance the local agricultural system
- Reduce waste
These strategies target different sectors of our community for which emission reductions will be the most effective. To achieve each strategy, work groups recommended 300+ associated actions to be implemented by various government entities, businesses, individuals, and non-profits. By assessing details such as feasibility, applicability to our region and likelihood of success, the work groups chose fifty-two recommended actions to analyze in more detail using the Climate and Air Pollution Planning Assistant tool (CAPPA). CAPPA projects GHG emission reductions, implementation costs and cost savings.
The CEAP provides an overarching cost-benefit analysis for each recommended action. Please note: a detailed cost-benefit analysis would need to be completed for any of the recommended actions that will be implemented.