Deputy City Supervisor Tyler Palmer and Environmental Education & Sustainability Specialist Kelli Cooper presented to Moscow City Council about current carbon emission rates and possible recommendations to consider.
Carbon sequestration is the process of capturing and storing CO2. Trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants sequester emissions.
In 2020, 438 metric tons of carbon were sequestered back into the soil. Roughly 11.5% of all emissions are sequestered.
What allows for increased sequestration would be native plants with roots that reach deeper in the ground, while lawn grass does not go as deep.
“So even if it does sequester… it doesn’t pull it very deep into the soil,” Cooper said. “I propose that we move to native plants in areas that make sense.”
The further introduction of prairie plants would be to pull carbon deeper into the ground, allowing it to be stored there. Another proposition that was brought up is increasing the acreage of trees.
“It helps us with our water usage and aquifers and keeps that at a minimum,” Moscow Mayor Tom Lambert said.
The community-wide emission is at a larger scale with many factors adding to the total released. Transportation, mobile sources, solid waste, water, industrial electricity, and industrial natural gas all have impacts.
In 2019 of the total community-wide emissions, only roughly 2% was being sequestered.
“When you think about it, the amount of property the city has, twelfth of it is in city parks,” Palmer said. “It would start to actually make sense that we are going to offset a higher percentage as a city because of the property.”
One of the proposed actions given to the council was carbon offsets for city operations through purchasing renewable energy credits with Avista’s My Clean Energy program.
“There’s ability to buy energy that’s actually produced through renewable sources,” Palmer said. “Participation program will make sure that the equivalent of your energy is purchased through those renewable sources.”
Through this program, it will allow the city side of emissions to be reduced significantly, with 72% of city operation emissions be sequestered.
Cooper introduced possible options for a climate action plan. The options include low carbon, net zero and resiliency. All options incorporate emission reduction, carbon sequestration and adaptation for impacts.
The first option of a climate action plan is the Science-Based Target’s Network.
“Network is one that we came across. It actually helps us to develop a plan,” Cooper said. “It helps us set science-based targets, which is really important.”
SBTN partners with numerous environmental and climate action groups like Local Governments for Sustainability and the World Wildlife Fund. The goal of SBTN is to have net-zero emissions by 2050 with an interim goal of 2030.
Race to Zero was another plan presented to the councilors. Boise is one of the 31 cities in the U.S. using this goal to reach carbon neutrality by 2050 with an interim goal in 2030.
“It actually provides us a lot of that technical expertise to help us develop those science-based targets,” Cooper said. “Helps us set those meaningful goals and those interim goals in 2030.”
The last option that was presented was the Sierra Club Ready For 100. RF100 has an end goal of 100% clean energy for all energy use by 2045.
Cooper mentioned that there is no set framework to achieve the goal. However, it can be done within another program to reach a carbon-neutral goal.
“In meeting the provisions of the Race to Zero, we would also be in alignment with Sierra Club’s RF100,” Palmer said. “There wouldn’t be anything that kept the council from committing to both because they largely work within the work we would be doing.”
The last option is community outreach and having the public be more involved. One of the programs referenced was Boise’s program to plant 100,000 trees across the city and 235,000 saplings in nearby forests by 2030. Other programs include distributed renewable energy, local food production and availability, building efficiency, electric vehicle programs, waste reduction and compact mixed-use development.
There were talks from the council members on what they want to see, as well as the issues.
Councilor Art Bettge comments were on survivability and education.
“I wouldn’t mind seeing an emphasis on the city hiring a full-time city forester to look at replacement of aging out trees,” Bettge said. “Also ensuring that new trees in the new subdivisions coming in… making sure that there is survivability in those trees downstream.”
Councilors wanted to make sure the public is educated as they are major producers of carbon emissions.
“Help us understand as citizens that we can actually affect our city’s impact,” Councilor Gina Taruscio said. “Everyone is in this together.”
After this workshop, a climate action draft will be presented in the spring of 2022 prior to the budget plan process.
Nicole Xiao, senior at Moscow High School and co-president of Climate Justice League, attended the workshop.
“I have a positive outlook on this now,” Xiao said. “City staff has made it pretty clear how much work Moscow has already done and laying down a foundation for a climate action plan.”
The CJL held a walkout at East City Park this past Saturday to bring awareness of Ready For 100. “City Council showed clear enthusiasm for community outreach and community commitments,” Xiao said. “That’s what CJL was hoping in city council to show support outside of municipal and city operation and that’s what they did. We’ve accomplished our goal.”
Daniel V. Ramirez can be reached at [email protected] or Twitter @DVR_Tweets