Thinking about how you can move the climate needle for your community or city? I’m glad you asked, because this is the new frontier in climate action. The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) was the largest investment the United States has made to stop human-caused pollution. Part of the IRA helped incentivize cities to create their own Climate Action Plans. It was so successful that over 96% of Americans will be covered by a Climate Action Plan. Some cities and counties are further along in their planning than others, but here’s an Idaho snapshot of participating localities.
In the last two years Idaho successfully applied for tens of millions of dollars in federal funding to safeguard our transportation infrastructure from climate change and to reduce pollution across the state. The communities of Boise, Coeur d’Alene, and Blaine County all published climate action plans (or sustainability plans as some are called). Both Sandpoint and McCall are in early phases of their planning efforts. A new partnership between Idaho-based Universities, Tribes, cities, and electric utilities will seek to understand and adapt to the impacts climate change will have on our closely linked water and energy systems. It should come as no surprise that Tribes across the Northwest, and especially those along the upper Snake River, have been early adopters of Climate Action Plans. All of these plans and partnerships help communities and businesses understand the climate risks impacting us today, continued vulnerabilities in a warming world, and what strategies they need to prioritize to build a climate-resilient future.
Climate Action Plans first begin with a greenhouse gas inventory to identify where most of a city’s emissions are coming from. Inevitably, things like electrifying buildings and transportation do a lot to reduce emissions, as does more dense urban living. The more we can incentivize dense urban living (shout out to Boise’s new zoning code, and Bonner County for their ongoing community engagement), the less vehicle miles we need to travel to get to work, the grocery store, and recreational activities. This concept may be better known by the phrase “15-minute cities,” where all your amenities are within 15 minutes of where you live without the need of a personal vehicle. Valley Regional Transit is in the early phases of designing a regional transportation plan to link the Treasure Valley together with high capacity transit, making it easier to live and work across the region. What’s more, Valley Regional Transit has also been busy electrifying their bus fleet!
From electric vehicles to places to charge then, Idaho is also building out fast charging stations along interstates and is partnering with other states in the West to build out these chargers along scenic byways—ensuring you and your family can visit our most beautiful places in an emissions-free vehicle without worrying about where you can fuel up.
All this funding does take some time to enact. For example, the State of Idaho was recently awarded over $580 million to ensure everybody has access to high speed, reliable and affordable broadband internet access. But it’s going to take construction workers and highway agencies time to plan and build out these broadband networks. Last year, it was announced that the cities of Hailey, Pocatello, Rexburg, Soda Springs, Malad City and the greater Treasure Valley all got funding to plant trees in urban spaces because of their public health benefits. This year, the City of Pocatello received a climate justice grant to upgrade their sewer system and plant more trees. These trees don’t plant themselves, neither will broadband cables or sewer lines magically connect themselves. It’s people, on the ground doing their everyday work, that are helping to make our communities more resilient to our changing world. It also means that Idaho is well-positioned to gain a lot of climate-related jobs! You can be one of those people moving us in the right direction, whether you’re using garden gloves to plant trees or using heavy machinery to install larger drains along roads.
Climate action is all around us, but it needs your involvement. Reach out to your local city or county and ask what they’re doing on climate issues—chances are, there could be some wildfire mitigation work, tree plantings, or community solar ideas that could use some extra voices of support. As a final example, the City of Boise recently opened up applications for Boise residents to join a climate advisory team to continue the work toward becoming carbon neutral by 2050! This is the kind of city leadership and community involvement we love to see, keeping themselves accountable to their climate commitment while also including local voices to make sure everyone is heard. Applications close Dec. 20, so apply today! If other cities are wondering where to begin on their climate action planning, they have lots of Idaho-specific examples to choose from that are well on their way to success!