From 2017 to 2018, Ecolibrium3 and its local partners led efforts to make climate action a key part of Duluth’s Imagine 2035 comprehensive plan update process. Our efforts were successful, resulting in the city establishing an Energy and Conservation Focus group, a city commitment to reduce carbon 80% by 2050, and the launch of a new Energy Plan Commission.
While initially it seemed that the Energy Plan Commission would focus its efforts on reducing carbon community wide, we found in the end that the commission will focus primarily on emissions from city operations. Although municipal action on operational emissions is important, we know it will take community-wide changes to address the climate crisis. To that end, we are developing a Duluth Citizens’ Climate Action Plan.
The Duluth Citizens’ Climate Action Plan will create a process for citizens to identify, prioritize, and implement actions to reach climate goals. By participating in the process, citizens will also build understanding and ownership of the climate crisis and potential solutions.
Soon we will be bringing together community members for community engagement and visioning sessions to start shaping the plan and naming doable actions towards an equitable, low-carbon economy. We invite you to join us. Stay tuned for more details! Or, sign up below if you’d like to be contacted to participate in the community engagement/visioning sessions.
Update 4/16/20: Because of the coronavirus epidemic, we will be moving to an online engagement campaign instead of in-person engagement/visioning sessions. Please sign up below to be notified about the campaign.