By Phyllis Farrell, South Sound Group
Thurston Climate Mitigation Plan was built on many years of sustainability work. Prior to this planning effort by the Thurston Regional Planning Council, Thurston County and the cities of Lacey, Olympia, and Tumwater had all adopted plans or resolutions expressing their commitments to address climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
In 2018, TRPC and the partnering jurisdictions adopted a common emissions baseline designed to help the region reach science-based emission reduction targets in the communities. These agreements were informed by a regional-specific Emissions Inventory and Analysis conducted by the Thurston Climate Action Team (TCAT), a local non-profit, and a commissioned carbon wedge analysis. Together with existing climate policies, the partnering jurisdictions agreed on a common goal to reduce regional emissions 45% below 2015 levels by 2030 and 85% below 2015 levels by 2050.
Drafting the Regional Plan to reach that common goal took many meetings of staff and volunteers. The Thurston Climate Mitigation Plan Final Plan | Thurston Regional Planning Council, WA (trpc.org) is the sum of many parts completed over more than a year of conversations, research, and analysis. Those pieces include:
• A list of community wide strategies and 72 actions that aim to lower greenhouse gas emissions and help our region progress toward adopted reduction targets.
• An estimate of how those strategies and actions can—collectively—enable our region to achieve the substantial emission reductions targeted by the four partner jurisdictions.
• A strategy for implementing climate mitigation actions
Once the draft was completed, efforts to influence elected officials to adopt and fund the plan began. Several local grassroots environmental non-profits which included the South Sound Sierra Club Group, collaborated in attending planning meetings, obtaining citizen signatures on petitions, lobbying each individual elected official in all four jurisdictions, attending public meetings and testifying.
In November, 2020, the South Sound Group applied for a Community Climate Action Grant offered by the Grassroots Network Climate Emergency Mobilization (GN-CEMTeam), a new nationwide Sierra Club team dedicated to energizing local climate action across the United States.
The South Sound Group was awarded one of the five grants of $500, which was used to support our partner TCAT’s public outreach program to grow community support and advocacy for the Plan. The funds were used for a program to hire young climate activists (graduate environmental studies students) to place signs around the community urging the public to contact local officials urging them to adopt the Plan and to pass resolutions declaring a climate emergency. Happily, all four jurisdictions have adopted the Plan and three have passed resolutions declaring a climate emergency. The city of Lacey will consider the Declaration of a Climate Emergency this summer.
The TCMP lays out a road map for continuing regional collaboration on reducing local contributions to climate change. It is intended to provide Thurston County and the cities of Lacey, Olympia, and Tumwater with a framework of solid strategies that will guide next steps, not lock them into specific tasks that may not make sense as the details are worked out.
All four partnering jurisdictions are working to approve an agreement for funding continuing climate action. Sierra Club members will continue to monitor plans, participate in actions and advocate for future needs.
To get involved, contact Phyllis (phyllisfarrell681@hotmail.com) or Lynn-Fitz Hugh (lynn@thurstonclimateaction.org).