Columbia’s Climate Action and Adaptation Plan (CAAP) lays out a vision and strategy to address risks posed by climate change and contribute to international efforts to draw down greenhouse gas emissions.
Our plan outlines goals for reducing community greenhouse gas emissions by 35% by 2035, by 80% by 2050, and by 100% by 2060. The goals for reducing municipal operations emissions are 50% by 2035 and 100% by 2050.
This report provides an update on our progress towards meeting the Climate Action and Adaptation Plan (CAAP) goals, as an organization and as a community. The annual report also outlines upcoming priority issues and areas of focus.
Each year, the Office of Sustainability staff conducts greenhouse gas inventories to measure both community and municipal operation's greenhouse gas emissions. This report has two sections: the Community Greenhouse Gas Inventory Report and the Municipal Greenhouse Gas Inventory Report.
Our commitment to tackling climate change is stronger than ever! Six Climate Action and Adaptation Plan (CAAP) Teams of over 40 City employees help us move towards our CAAP goals through interdepartmental conversation and collaboration.
Although team members come from departments across the City, the focuses of our CAAP Teams fall into six key categories (graph left). Through their work together, all six teams focus on projects that have direct impacts on decreasing Columbia’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and enhancing our climate resilience.
The CAAP Team members identify what tasks are necessary to reach our sustainability goals and what opportunities will allow CAAP Teams to share knowledge, strategy, and understanding to create change for a greener future.
Implementing the CAAP requires motivating staff, finding funding for strategies, involving community members to make key changes and sustaining momentum. Columbia has already taken steps to improve community sustainability. The implementation of the CAAP strategies is a priority for Columbia. The table below provides all of the CAAP strategies in a format to allow for ease of tracking progress on implementation.
