This evening the Boulder City Council will hold a study session on the city’s climate action plan, transportation and renewable energy strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. I’ll be attending.

A study session is a meeting of city council members and staff to go over current and upcoming issues, discuss topics, and give staff/consultants direction. The public is welcome to observe, but no public comments, questions, or statements are taken. However, the public may be asked questions. No formal voting takes place.

According to the 65-page memorandum from the Boulder Dept. of Environmental Affairs to the City Council, this session will provide an update on initiatives undertaken as part of Boulder’s Climate Action Plan (CAP, see backgrounder), and the Transportation Master Plan’s FasTracks Local Optimization (FLO) initiative (a planned transportation system in Boulder that will integrate regional rail and bus rapid transit, expected to be implemented around 2014-16).

Also tonight, Environmental Affairs will introduce its draft renewable energy strategy for the city.

Apparently, council has been pushing the city’s Climate Smart program to pursue emissions cuts more aggressively….

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Yesterday I wrote about how a remark at a meeting by Boulder Environmental Affairs spokesperson Beth Powell implied that the city might be considering options for not meeting the Kyoto Protocol goals. I called Powell to ask for clarification on this.

In a voice mail, Powell explained that in fact the Climate Smart team is still committed to its original plan of meeting the Kyoto Protocol goals:

“There is definitely no intention to backpedal at all. We want to increase our aggressive approach to cutting greenhouse gas emissions. That said, the Climate Smart team doesn’t have any unilateral decisionmaking power. We aren’t necessarily even going to recommend to council a new goal. We’re just going to ask them if they would like to see another goal. The study session is when all the details will be revealed. We’re writing that council memo now, and are willing to share information on that.”

…I’m relieved to learn that I misunderstood Powell’s remarks in the context of that event — and to get a clear statement that the city (at least at this point) does not intend to take advantage of the apparent wiggle room in the language of the 2002 council resolution that committed the city to meeting the Kyoto goals. Clarity about targets and achievements would seem to benefit everyone involved in this issue, in Boulder and elsewhere.

Many thanks to Powell for clarifying this matter.

(UPDATE Mar. 21: The city has clarified that it does not intend to backpedal on Kyoto.)

Last night’s Climate Smart community meeting at the West Boulder Senior center was well attended, energetic, and constructive. Over 40 community members and city and county employees attended. I took extensive notes and will be writing much more about the event later.

But first, I was a bit surprised to hear city Environmental Affairs spokesperson Beth Powell note that her department may recommend to the City Council, “that we go beyond Kyoto to a 2020 or 2050 goal.”

…A little bit of background: Boulder’s major municipal efforts to address climate change began in 2002, when the City Council passed resolution 906 adopting the goals of the Kyoto Protocol — which would require the city to cut its greenhouse gas emissions reducing greenhouse gas emissions 7% below the estimated 1990 level. The Kyoto Protocol calls for that goal to be met by 2012 — which is when the current carbon tax sunsets.

Actually, the wording of the resolution included some wiggle room…

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