Background

The Flagstaff City Council declared a Climate Emergency on June 23, 2020. This declaration revised the goal of the 2018 Climate Action and Adaptation Plan, to achieving community-wide carbon neutrality by 2030. Since then, staff have worked to speak with the community about how they want to achieve carbon neutrality - we've heard from over 1600 of you to help craft our Draft Carbon Neutrality Plan.

Check out our Climate Emergency website for information on our community engagement process. Our Climate Emergency Open House site features 22 videos from Flagstaff community members on carbon neutrality and how climate action can make life better.

The Flagstaff Carbon Neutrality Plan

We have published a DRAFT Carbon Neutrality Plan (CNP).  This Draft Plan focuses on actions that will help the Flagstaff community achieve carbon neutrality by 2030. This Plan will guide our work as we strive to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030. This Plan will be a living document, evolving annually to adjust to technological advances and changing conditions on the ground.

See our CNP webpage to read a summary of Plan goals and target areas.

There are many benefits of climate action and achieving carbon neutrality:

• Improved public health, due to more active transportation and lower levels of pollution.
• A more resilient community that is better able to respond to disasters, harmful events, and long-term change.
• Financial benefits from preparing for shocks and change - preparation is generally many times more cost-effective than response.
• Job and economic development benefits.

We have seven target areas of action:

• Clean Electricity
• Reduced Building Energy Demand
• Building Fuel Switching
• Decreased Dependence on Cars
• Electric Mobility
• Sustainable Consumption and Waste Management
• Sequestration, Certificates, and Offsets

Within each of these target areas, we have specific strategies to help us reach carbon neutrality. To view these strategies, check out our draft Carbon Neutrality Plan, available here. To learn more about this work, the Climate Emergency Open House site, our Climate Emergency webpage, or the draft Flagstaff Carbon Neutrality Plan.

We want to hear from you as we revise the Carbon Neutrality Plan - please complete this survey.

Note that this survey should be taken in Chrome or Firefox internet browsers to correctly view all questions.