37585

Resolution

Adopt the Climate Emergency Workplan 2022-2025 as Portland’s Climate Action Plan

Adopted

WHEREAS, in 2020, the Portland City Council declared that a human-made climate emergency threatens our city, our region, our state, our nation, humanity, and the natural world, and that such an emergency calls for an immediate mobilization effort initiating greater action, resources, and collaboration that prioritizes frontline communities to restore a safe climate (Resolution No. 37494, as amended (“Climate Emergency Declaration”); and

WHEREAS, development of the Climate Emergency Declaration involved a year of engagement with bureaus, community-based organizations, utilities, youth climate activists, environmental justice organizations, environmental advocacy organizations, and individual community members; and  

WHEREAS, the Climate Emergency Declaration established new, more aggressive carbon emissions reductions targets to align with the Paris Climate Agreement to which Council affirmed Portland’s responsibility to reduce carbon emissions fifty percent or more by 2030 and net zero carbon emissions before 2050; and

WHEREAS, carbon emissions includes all greenhouse gases combined in a single unit, expressed as carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e), and Portland has tracked and analyzed carbon emissions since 1990 using the Global Protocol for Community-Scale Greenhouse Gas Emission Inventories; and

WHEREAS, traditional sector-based carbon emission inventories – which primarily only account for emissions produced within a jurisdiction’s geographic boundary – underestimate carbon impacts globally and lack the ability to address fundamental issues of well-being and quality of life. Portland’s consumption-based carbon emission inventory shows that global carbon emissions that result from the consumption of food, goods, materials, and services by Portlanders are more than double the emissions produced locally; and

WHEREAS, in 2022, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded that humanity must make immediate and deep carbon emissions reductions to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius to avert the direst consequences of climate change (Summary for Policymakers of the IPCC Working Group III Report, Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change); and

WHEREAS, Portland’s most recent Climate Action Plan was developed in partnership with Multnomah County and adopted by Council in 2015, had a five-year action horizon, and became out of date in 2020 (Resolution No. 37135); and

WHEREAS, the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability (BPS) developed a Climate Emergency Workplan (2022-2025) (Climate Emergency Workplan) in collaboration with its partner bureaus, including the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT), which will lead most of the decarbonization priorities together with BPS, and the bureaus with shared resilience priorities, including the Bureau of Development Services, Bureau of Environmental Services, Portland Fire & Rescue, Portland Parks & Recreation, Portland Bureau of Emergency Management, the Water Bureau, PBOT and BPS; and

WHEREAS, the Climate Emergency Workplan includes strategies and actions to achieve goals and objectives in the Climate Emergency Declaration, the 2035 Comprehensive Plan, the 100 Percent Renewable Energy Resolution (Resolution No. 37289 (2017), and bureau strategic plans related to climate change, and therefore fulfills the same purpose as a climate action plan; and

WHEREAS, the Climate Emergency Workplan prioritizes climate strategies and actions the City of Portland has jurisdiction or unique influence over; and

WHEREAS, the Climate Emergency Workplan prioritizes actions that: (1) are grounded in a community of practice among cities that have net zero carbon goals, like the Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance and C40; and (2) can deliver meaningful carbon emissions reductions within the next eight years, along with essential community co-benefits such as improved public health and air quality, livability, affordability, and inclusive economic opportunity; and  

WHEREAS, the Climate Emergency Workplan prioritizes actions that build Portlanders’ resilience to the impacts of climate change, centering the needs of frontline communities and people who are most vulnerable to the risks of climate change because of low income, social isolation, or houselessness; and

WHEREAS, BPS and Multnomah County, together with community partners, will develop a climate justice plan to guide needed policy innovations and investments that address the impacts of the climate crisis and reduce carbon emissions in Multnomah County; and

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Climate Emergency Workplan attached as Exhibit A is adopted by the City Council to implement the Climate Emergency Declaration and to serve as the City’s climate action plan, replacing all previously adopted climate action plans, including the 2015 Climate Action Plan; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the bureaus named above and all Council offices must work together to bring strategies and actions identified in the Climate Emergency Workplan to City Council over the next three years for public consideration; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the bureaus named above will work together to update the Climate Emergency Workplan for 2026-2030.

Impact Statement

Purpose of Proposed Legislation and Background Information

In 2020, City Council declared that a human-made climate emergency threatens our city, our region, our state, our nation, humanity, and the natural world, and that such an emergency calls for an immediate mobilization effort initiating greater action, resources, and collaboration that prioritizes frontline communities to restore a safe climate (Resolution No. 37494 as amended [“Climate Emergency Declaration]).

The Climate Emergency Declaration (CED) also acknowledged that people on the frontlines of climate change have contributed the least to the problem, exacerbating the injustice.

The CED requires the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability (BPS) to report annually on progress to implement the directives of the resolution to increase transparency and accountability.

This legislation accomplishes two things:

It represents the second annual report from BPS on implementation of the Climate Emergency Declaration.

It presents the Climate Emergency Workplan 2022-2025 for adoption by resolution to serve as the City’s climate action plan.

The Climate Emergency Workplan 2022-2025 represents a compilation of ongoing, prioritized work on decarbonization (which is the act of removing carbon from sectors and activities that produce it and is also known as climate change mitigation) and climate resilience, which focuses on preparing Portlanders for the impacts of climate change.

Rather than describe brand new projects, the Workplan weaves together a single narrative of the many different policies, programs, plans, and projects that are currently underway related to climate mitigation and resilience at the City.

Even though the Workplan describes actions and priorities that are largely underway, the proposed priorities should be considered a major step forward in implementation. There are many innovative, high-impact practices and ideas embedded in the Workplan.

BPS developed the Climate Emergency Workplan in collaboration with its partner bureaus, including the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT), which will lead most of the decarbonization priorities together with BPS.

The bureaus with shared resilience priorities include BPS, the Bureau of Development Services, Bureau of Environmental Services, Office of Management and Finance, Portland Fire & Rescue, Portland Parks & Recreation, Portland Bureau of Emergency Management, the Water Bureau, and PBOT.

In some instances, the priorities in the Climate Emergency Workplan are community-driven or have had and will continue to have significant community involvement. In other cases, they are bureau-led.

The Climate Emergency Workplan emphasizes actions that are uniquely within City Council’s purview to act upon (as opposed to the state or federal government.).

Each of the actions named is a whole project and process to itself, in many cases with constituents and stakeholders that have already been and should continue to be engaged as these initiatives come before Council over the three-year period of the Workplan.

Financial and Budgetary Impacts

The Climate Emergency Workplan itself does not have a fiscal impact. However, implementing the policies, programs, plans, and projects described within the Workplan certainly does. The Workplan attempts to provide City Council with a sense of implementation costs – not in exact dollars, but rather an indication of the scale of staffing and non-personnel costs involved, using a system of icons to indicate relative resource gaps for most of the priorities in the Workplan. These represent costs to the City itself in terms of FTE, program dollars, and capital investments, not a macroeconomic analysis of the priorities.

Aside from some of the infrastructure investments that are multimillion dollar projects, many of the decarbonization policies individually require relatively modest staffing and program resources. But viewed collectively, the Workplan demonstrates that the level of investment required to avert the climate emergency must increase over time.

Community Impacts and Community Involvement

The Climate Emergency Declaration acknowledged that the impacts of climate change are not experienced equitably. People of color, immigrants, refugees, children and youth, women, people living with disabilities, the elderly, people experiencing homelessness, and low-income people are most at risk from the impacts of climate change.

People on the frontlines of climate change have contributed the least to the problem.

Risks include working outside in high heat days, breathing bad air, lack of access to shelter and cooling during extreme heat events.

Low-income homeowners and renters tend to have less access to air-conditioning, air-purification systems, or insulation to keep out the heat, smoke, and other toxics.

Native American and Indigenous communities that rely on healthy ecosystems for food and cultural practices have been harmed since the time of colonization; climate change exacerbates and perpetuates these historical harms.

The CED involved a year of engagement with bureaus, community-based organizations, utilities, youth climate activists, environmental justice organizations, environmental advocacy organizations, and individual community members. Close to 50 representatives from various frontline community-based organizations, and climate and environmental stakeholders were consulted in its development.

The CED established the climate justice initiative to recognize that traditionally, those who bear the burden of climate change are the furthest removed from decision-making tables and resourcing to meaningfully participate in government processes.

Since 2020, BPS staff, in partnership with Multnomah County, the Coalition of Communities of Color and individual community members created a “third space” – a collaborative space between community and government – to design solutions for climate justice that emanated from community and centered community voices and priorities. The result of this collaboration was a clear message that the participants prioritized climate resilience as one of their key concerns.

As a continuation of the climate justice initiative, BPS and Multnomah County, together with community partners, will develop a climate justice plan to guide needed policy innovations and investments that address the impacts of the climate crisis and reduce carbon emissions in Multnomah County.

Within the Climate Emergency Workplan are many examples of policy- and project-specific community engagement processes. The Workplan is an expression of ongoing work in many disparate venues and spaces, rather than an expression of new directions and new priorities for the City.  

Key racial equity questions, such as who benefits and who is burdened, will be asked and answered for each of the priorities.

100% Renewable Goal

The 100% The Climate Emergency Declaration amended the 100% Renewable Energy goals (Resolution No. 37289) and built upon them. The actions taken as a result of implementing the Climate Emergency Workplan are intended to increase the City’s renewable energy use and decrease the use of fossil-fuel based energy consumption.

Agenda Items

Continued

Vote called. (Y-5)
Motion for reconsideration to rescind the vote and keep the record open until the item comes back to Council on August 24 at 9:55 a.m.: Moved by Rubio and seconded by Hardesty. (Y-5)

Oral record is closed. Written record will remain open until August 24, 2022 at 9:55 a.m.
Written testimony may be submitted at cctestimony@portlandoregon.gov.

708 Time Certain in August 24, 2022 Council Agenda

Adopted

  • Former Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty Absent
  • Commissioner Mingus Mapps Yea
  • Commissioner Carmen Rubio Yea
  • Commissioner Dan Ryan Yea
  • Mayor Ted Wheeler Yea

Contact

Andria Jacob

Climate Policy and Program Manager, BPS

Requested Agenda Type

Time Certain

Date and Time Information

Requested Council Date
Requested Start Time
9:55 am
Time Requested
30 minutes
Confirmed Time Certain