The Fort Collins City Council this week unanimously adopted some of the most aggressive goals in the nation to reduce community greenhouse gas emissions: 20 percent below 2005 by 2020 and 80 percent by 2030, which would put the community on a path to be carbon neutral by 2050.

Council adopted the goals after four work sessions, multiple public forums and nine months of work with a Citizen Advisory Committee that helped shape the overall 2015 Climate Action Plan Framework. The framework document features 11 strategies that speed up the City’s original 2008 goals to reduce emissions to 20 percent below 2005 levels by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050.

“Adoption of these goals truly establishes Fort Collins as a national leader in striving to mitigate local greenhouse gas emissions and to enhance our community’s resilience to climate change,” said the City’s Environmental Services Director Lucinda Smith. “We’re especially appreciative of the residents on the Citizen Advisory Committee for their dedication to this project and for their long hours. Now the hard work begins to develop a more detailed plan to implement these strategies in a way that honors the economic, social and environmental values of our community.”

In the resolution adopted Tuesday, Council directed staff to develop a 2020 Climate Action Implementation Plan to prioritize actions and associated near-term budget requests needed for progress between 2015 and 2020 tomeet the 2020 greenhouse gas goals and longer term targets, and continue public engagement.

How the City will achieve the goals, as described in the framework plan:

• Buildings: Boosting efficiency, comfort and health through new and existing buildings.
• Advanced Mobility: Making transport faster, more convenient and cleaner through multimodal transportation, changes in land use patterns and fuel efficient and electric vehicles.
• Energy Supply and Delivery: The shift to renewable energy resources through utility-scale renewable energy supply, increased adoption of solar and shifting heating loads to biofuels and electrification.
• Waste Reduction and Materials Regeneration: Reuse and recycling through the Road to Zero Waste and carbon sequestration.

For more information and background on the 2015 Climate Action Plan Framework, go to www.fcgov.com/climateprotection.