Drafter
Clerk 10/09/2019
Title
A MOTION relating to communitywide greenhouse gas emissions; directing the executive to conduct further outreach and engagement with local governments and other stakeholders, and to develop a toolkit for local governments to use in planning, implementing and monitoring actions to reduce greenhouse gases.
Body
WHEREAS, in October 2018 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a special report concluding that humans must reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by forty-five percent by 2030 to limit global warming to one and one-half degrees Celsius, and
WHEREAS, warming beyond one and one-half degrees Celsius is projected to irreversibly impact food systems, water supplies, public health, economic growth and natural resources around the globe, and
WHEREAS, the past five years have been the hottest on record, and in 2017 global temperature rise surpassed one degree Celsius above preindustrial levels, and
WHEREAS, over seven hundred localities around the world have declared a climate emergency to drive efforts to prevent the worst effects of climate change, and
WHEREAS, every action to limit warming matters and every government, every community and every individual can play a role, but collective multisector coordination will be most effective in combatting climate change, and
WHEREAS, King County is already experiencing the impacts of climate change: more frequent wildfires, rising sea levels, declining mountain snowpack, worsening flood and drought risk and extreme heat, and
WHEREAS, unless adequately addressed, climate change will have devastating effects on regional economies, infrastructure, recreation, the natural environment, public health, safety and quality of life, and
WHEREAS, the effects of climate change will disproportionately impact frontline communities in King County that are predominantly low-income and communities of color who, due to historic systems of structural racism and oppression, have be...

Click here for full text