Grand Rapids city leaders adopted a climate action plan Tuesday, nearly four years after first calling for the plan to be created.
The plan sets a goal of reducing carbon emissions from electricity usage and vehicles in the city by 62.8% per capita by 2030, compared to 2019 emission levels. And it calls for becoming carbon neutral — eliminating or balancing out greenhouse gas emissions completely — by 2050.
Mayor David LaGrand, who supported the plan, acknowledged the city clearly can’t address a global climate problem on its own.
“This is us attempting to do our part,” Lagrand said before voting to support the plan. “But if nobody else does their part, we’re not going to solve this problem. But we don’t want to be, as a city, in a moral position where we’re not taking appropriate action that we should be taking proportionate to our city."
The plan sets out a list of goals for the city to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from powering buildings and vehicles in the city. The plan does not change any ordinances or create any new requirements. But achieving the goals in the plan could lead to those things.
The possibility of future code changes and building requirements was enough to spur opposition from some business groups, including the Grand Rapids Chamber, which called on city leaders to modify the plan.
“I’m struck by a number of things which I would say I’m excited that we could support,” said Josh Lunger, vice president of government affairs for the Grand Rapids Chamber.
But Lunger said the chamber remains opposed to some of the more than 100 recommended actions in the plan, and urged commissioners to continue discussions as they work toward implementing them.
“We’re concerned about impact versus intent, and we hope that you engage with a broad swath of the business community as you move forward on this, particularly around incentives, rules, mandates,” Lunger said.
The resolution adopted by commissioners Monday priorities 20 action steps from the 115-page report to take on first. It directs city staff to take the remainder of the year to analyze the cost and feasibility of enacting those 20 priorities.
A draft of the full plan is available online here.
The top 20 priority actions are listed here.
