Newark City Council hears the latest on the city’s work to develop a Climate Action Plan.
The city is developing the plan with Rossi Group and ICF. It would build on the city’s existing sustainability planning and greenhouse gas inventory work.
The goal is to identify practical strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve community resilience.
Preliminary results show community-wide net greenhouse gas emissions declined about 6% between 2019 and 2024 while emissions from municipal operations declined 37% in the same period.
"The focus of the city's strategies in the Climate Action Plan will be on the areas where the city has authority to drive action directly or through partnerships. So some examples of that would include buildings, some building retrofits of existing residential and commercial building stock, high efficiency electrification, space and water heating and setting strong expectations for new construction," said Katie O’Malley, Senior Climate Change and Sustainability Manager with ICF.
The project is still in the analysis and strategy development phase.
O’Malley explains what they’re focusing on next.
"We are actively finalizing the mitigation and resilience strategies for the Climate Action Plan draft,” said O’Malley. “These strategies were consolidated using the gsg pathways meeting with city representatives from the electric, parks and water departments. And following feedback from our recent workshop and roundtable events."
The goal is for it to be completed early next year.
