WHEREAS, the City of Seattle is a nationally and internationally recognized leader in climate protection and environmental sustainability work; and

WHEREAS, the City Council passed Resolution 30316 in 2001 supporting efforts to curb global warming, adopting greenhouse gas emission (GHG) reduction goals for the City of Seattle, and calling for continuing and new actions toward achieving those goals; and

WHEREAS, the City of Seattle created the U.S. Mayor's Climate Protection Agreement in 2005, an agreement that more than 1000 mayors from the 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, have signed; and

WHEREAS, climate protection activities contribute substantially to the achievement of many of the City's highest priority goals, including affordable housing, transportation choices, building energy efficiency, solid waste reduction, urban forest protection, sustainable economic development, and clean air; and

WHEREAS, there is growing consensus among the scientific community that the quickest path to stay below the United Nations Copenhagen Accord-identified 2 degrees centigrade maximum increase (equivalent to 80% below 1990 emissions levels by 2050) may be insufficient to address the risks of climate change because its assumption that global emissions will peak in 2011 almost certainly will not be realized and greater reductions are required in later years for each year that emissions continue to increase; and

WHEREAS, the City Council established a goal of achieving zero net greenhouse gas emissions ("carbon neutrality") as a priority in its 2010 work program and asked community members for recommendations on what the City should do to move towards that goal; and

WHEREAS, the Office of Sustainability and Environment commissioned the development of an emissions reduction scenario that represents one of many potential pathways to carbon neutrality; and

WHEREAS, the carbon neutral scenario commissioned by the Office of Sustainability and Environment identifies specific carbon reduction strategies including making buildings more energy efficient, reducing the GHG intensity of building energy, reducing vehicle miles traveled, reducing the energy intensity of transportation fuels, and reducing GHG emissions from the City waste stream by increasing recycling rates and capturing methane; and

WHEREAS, the City's Climate Action Plan is scheduled to be updated beginning in fall of 2011; NOW, THEREFORE,

BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SEATTLE, THE MAYOR CONCURRING, THAT:

Section 1. City adopts the following climate protection and adaptation goals:

(1) Seattle will strive to reach net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050; and

(2) Seattle will be prepared for the likely impacts of climate change.

Section 2. The Office of Sustainability and Environment will lead a process to update the Seattle Climate Action Plan with a focus on advancing the Section 1 goals through road transportation, building energy, waste emission, and climate adaptation actions. The updated Seattle Climate Action Plan will:

(a) Develop emission sector targets for the road transportation, buildings and waste sectors that will guide the City's investments in climate action, working from the following preliminary targets:

(b) Evaluate potential changes in City regulation and policies; incentives for private action; intergovernmental coordination at the regional, state and federal level; public education; City of Seattle operations; and other measures that could contribute to meeting the Section 1 goals, and recommend climate protection and adaptation strategies and actions based on that evaluation;

(c) Address how offsets and other beneficial City actions can be used to reach City climate goals, drawing from beneficial actions such as urban and watershed forest management, recycling, and energy conservation and renewable energy resource development (conducted as part of City Light's core business of providing electricity to rate payers) that could help position City Light as a climate restoration utility;

(d) Identify how climate protection and adaptation actions bolster and are assisted by City economic development objectives such as creating jobs and highroad careers related to energy-efficient buildings, smart grid development, district energy development, and alternative transportation;

(e) Develop strategies (including consumption-based GHG reduction strategies) for businesses, households, and individuals to contribute to climate protection through their purchases, participation in the Local Food Action Initiative, and other means, recognizing that action by City government alone cannot achieve net zero GHG emissions;

(f) Develop a Seattle Climate Action Plan implementation strategy including priorities, implementation responsibilities and schedules, and funding options including City sources, other locally generated resources, and public/private partnerships;

(g) Be informed by broad community input, including the carbon neutral white papers completed by community workgroups in the fall of 2010; and

(h) Be completed no later than September 2012.

Section 3. The Office of Sustainability and Environment will develop a community process to engage a wide range of stakeholders, including but not limited to historically underserved communities, businesses, environmental organizations, and urban planning organizations, in the update of the Climate Action Plan. The community process should include targeted outreach to solicit citizen ideas for achieving carbon neutrality. The community process should inform the Climate Action Plan's emission sector reduction targets, suite of climate action activities, and implementation priorities.

Section 4. The City intends to continue to be a leader in developing ways to protect our climate, but recognizes that actions in and by Seattle are not enough to achieve the goals of climate protection. The City therefore commits itself to developing partnerships with state and regional leaders and governments in order to foster coordinated action, and to continue to support national and international actions to achieve climate stability.

Adopted by the City Council the ____ day of ____________________, 2011, and signed by me in open session in authentication of its adoption this________ day

of ______________________, 2011.

_________________________________

President ___________of the City Council

THE MAYOR CONCURRING:

_________________________________

Michael McGinn, Mayor

Filed by me this ____ day of ________________________, 2011.

____________________________________

Monica Martinez Simmons, City Clerk

(Seal)

Meg Moorehead LEG Climate goals RESO September 19, 2011 Version #2b