Title
Public Hearing to Consider Adoption of Resolution Adopting a Mitigated Negative Declaration, Mitigation Monitoring and Reporting Program and Climate Action and Resiliency Plan (CARP). (Public Works 310)
Body
To: Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Development of the Climate Action and Resiliency Plan (CARP) involved hundreds of Alamedans and numerous community and stakeholder groups who shaped the plan's direction and content. City Council provided input at the July 16, 2019 preliminary public hearing on the draft CARP, draft Mitigated Negative Declaration (MND) and draft Mitigation Monitoring and Reporting Plan. The CARP proposed for adoption in this final action has been revised in accord with City Council's input.
Adoption of the CARP will conclude a process initiated by the City Council's May 2017 referral to update the 2008 Local Action Plan for Climate Protection. The urgency to adopt a plan and move to implementation was more recently underlined in the City Council's unanimous March 2019 approval of a climate emergency declaration.
BACKGROUND
The City of Alameda (City) is expected to face significant challenges in the coming years due to a changing climate. This means preparing for more frequent episodes of unhealthy air quality from wildfires, rising sea levels, more intense winter rain/wind storms, a rise in groundwater levels and longer, deeper droughts with impacts to transportation, power, communications, health, personal property, housing supply, and the economy, among others.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports that human behavior, particularly burning fossil fuels, is inducing climate change by releasing harmful greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The severity of predicted climate change scenarios is explicitly linked to global trajectories of GHG emissions. If emissions do not decrease, and if the City does not prepare for sea level rise and more intense storms, many parts of the City wil...
Click here for full text