Urgent call to action: Roanoke’s climate action plan outlines decisive steps

Roanoke, Virginia – A recent city report underscores the necessity for immediate action by the residents of Roanoke in order to mitigate the worst impacts of climate change. This includes installing solar panels, transitioning to electric vehicles, and diminishing the use of plastic.

Roanoke’s Climate Action Plan, currently in its draft phase, delineates multiple measures residents, businesses, and the local government can undertake to slash the community’s greenhouse gas emissions by half in the coming decade.

Climate scientists affirm that reaching this goal, alongside a target to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050, is essential to maintain global warming below a 2 degrees Celsius rise from pre-industrial levels.

“Human well-being is at stake,” expressed Leigh Anne Weitzenfeld, the city’s sustainability coordinator. “It’s not the polar bear that is going to starve to death because the icebergs are not going to be there. … It is the people that you sit around with at the Thanksgiving and Christmas table that are going to be affected at the end.”

The continuous and accelerated burning of fossil fuels is pushing our Earth’s atmosphere to a critical junction. It has been scientifically proven that this warming has precipitated severe droughts, storms, and wildfires, escalated sea levels, and triggered ecological transformations threatening human health, animal survival, and the stability of the global food supply.

“This is not a plan for the shelf,” declares the draft plan. “We must take ownership of the work that must be done to avoid climate disaster late this century. We can’t wait until climate change gets really bad; it will be too late.”

While Roanoke has been successful in meeting its previous targets to lower greenhouse gas emissions, the plan suggests that these modest accomplishments are overshadowed by the need for a much more assertive approach.

“The City of Roanoke and its citizens have made good progress on emission reductions since the early 2000’s,” states the draft plan. “The reality is, while we’ve begun mitigation measures to lessen greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels, we have not reached the scale of investment and effort needed to avoid significant damages to human health, the environment that supports our well-being, and the economy.”

The Inflation Reduction Act’s federal aid, running into millions of dollars, is identified in the plan as a crucial mechanism for achieving the emission reduction objectives, as it will facilitate the transition to renewable energy sources.

Based on income, residents could obtain significant discounts on expenses for new heat pumps, solar panels, electric vehicles, water heaters, electric stoves, and home weatherization projects. It is anticipated that early next year, officials will provide further guidance on the exact sum of available federal funding.

Weitzenfeld has strategically aligned the community’s 50% carbon emissions reduction target with the expiration of much of this financial aid in 2032. The city government, contributing just 2% of total emissions, has set their own objective to achieve this reduction by 2030.

“These are really stretch goals,” commented Sean McGinnis, director of Virginia Tech’s Green Engineering Program. “If we don’t really double our efforts, or more, we’re going to have a hard time to hit these goals.”

The draft climate action plan accentuates how human health, social equity, and the regional economy will all be adversely affected by climate change’s consequences.

“Obviously, there’s a small group of people that are going to do things just for the sake of the environment,” noted McGinnis. “But I think there’s a bigger group of people that if you give them another reason and tell them this also helps the environment, then you have a bigger chance of getting a larger group of people doing something.”

Above all, McGinnis believes, it is critical to raise awareness.

“Everybody thinks something small they do — turning their thermostat back, taking the bus one day a week — I think people tend to think that these small things don’t add up,” he said, “but when you add them up across a large population, they really do make a difference.”

Weitzenfeld’s office, soon to be renamed as the Sustainability and Climate Resiliency Division from the previous “clean and green” brand, aims to align the climate action plan with the city’s comprehensive plan through integration with the Planning, Building and Development department.

This relocation could incite fresh policies on Roanoke’s walkability, as suggested by Weitzenfeld.

McGinnis suggested that expanding staff in Weitzenfeld’s office could be an immediate step for city leaders. However, he acknowledges that converting the city’s fleet to electric vehicles and installing solar energy systems will require more time.

“The city can’t solve this by itself; it has to be a community-based effort,” concluded Weitzenfeld, emphasizing the need for collective action in facing this monumental challenge.