Commissioners to Vote on Climate Change Action Resolution
On Thursday, Missoula County Commissioners will vote to adopt a resolution on how the county administration will face the effects of climate change.
Energy Conservation and Sustainability Coordinator Diana Maneta said on Tuesday that the county is taking climate change very seriously.
“Looking at locally specific climate projections we know we can expect increasingly hot and dry summers and warm and wet springs, and that means more wildfire seasons like the one we had two years ago and more flooding seasons potentially like the one we had in 2018,” said Maneta. “The county is addressing this issue in two ways. One is what we need to do to address these changes in terms of adapting to their impacts, so we’re in the midst of a climate resiliency planning effort in partnership with the city and Climate Smart Missoula., and what are those locally specific impacts and what do we need to be doing now to prepare and adapt to those conditions.”
Maneta said the response will start with the county administration.
“This if for county government operations, so it doesn’t apply to everybody in the county,” she said. “The idea here is for the county government to do our part to address this really critical issue and to lead by example as we look to do more projects within the county and what we can do to lead by example here.”
The resolution includes a goal of carbon neutrality for county operations by 2035, as well as an interim goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 30 percent below 2016 levels by 2025.
The public meeting will be at 2 p.m. Thursday, March 14, in the Sophie Moiese Room of the Courthouse Annex.