Report: Portland progressing in bid to combat climate change

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The Portland City Council on Thursday unanimously accepted a report on the progress made toward meeting the Climate Emergency Declaration goal – but agreed more must be done.

The progress report was presented by the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability and the Bureau of Transportation, which updated the City Council on what has taken place since the emergency declaration was passed last year to accelerate climate-related action.

The five most notable commitments in the resolution passed for the building industry are:

1. Reduce carbon emissions by at least 50 percent by 2030 and by 100 percent by 2050;
2. Adopt new policies that reduce carbon from buildings and the transportation section, including movement toward readiness for electric vehicles;
3. Adopt new policies to prevent further expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure and accelerate the transition to clean, renewable fuel options;
4. Require transportation justice, so that projects and policies reduce carbon emissions while advancing racial equity; and
5. PGE and Pacific Power deliver 100 percent clean, renewable electricity to all Portland residents and businesses no later than 2030.

The climate declaration also recognized that the effects of climate change are often felt disproportionately – yet the groups affected are often the least responsible for contributing to it.

“People of color, low-income households, the elderly, children, and people living alone or experiencing houselessness are all disproportionately harmed by severe weather events like deadly and disastrous heat domes, snowstorms and wildfires,” the report stated. “These communities will continue to bear a disproportionate burden from climate change unless government policies, investments and solutions center their voices and priorities.”

In the past year, city staffers have made some progress in implementing the directives set by the Climate Emergency Declaration, according to the bureaus, including:

• passage of House Bill 2021 (signed into law by Gov. Kate Brown on Tuesday), which establishes an interim clean energy target and a zero-emissions target by 2040 for PGE and Pacific Power;
• adoption of an internal cost of carbon for city operations;
• support of a youth-led summit on climate justice (on Dec. 12, 2020, more than 150 youths convened for a daylong virtual summit);
• adoption of HR 2180, an EV-ready building code for new construction in multi-dwelling, mixed-use and commercial zones; and
• construction of several Rose Lane projects (and more in progress), including more than four miles of bus priority lanes and spot improvements to make buses and streetcars faster and more reliable for riders.

Future work will include eliminating carbon from existing buildings, focusing on embodied carbon and green building, electrifying and decarbonizing transportation, replacing dirty fuel with clean fuel, and decarbonizing the grid.

The focus moving forward, according to the report, will be on the building and transportation sectors, which account for most emissions.

“The actions we undertake in the next several years will determine whether or not we will meet the 2030 interim target to cut our emissions in half, and ultimately, whether or not we can achieve the emissions reductions necessary to stave off the worst impacts of climate change,” the report stated.

The report is available at: www.portland.gov/sites/default/files/council-documents/2021/exhibita_ced_final_report_0.pdf.

Also on Thursday, Brown declared a state of emergency for 23 counties, including Multnomah, to ensure additional resources are available for an anticipated heat wave.

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler said city commissioners and others did not foresee the record-breaking temperatures of late June suspected of causing the deaths of 116 people in Oregon, most in Multnomah County.

In addition to Multnomah, Brown’s heat emergency declaration covers: Benton, Clackamas, Columbia, Curry, Douglas, Gilliam, Grant, Hood River, Jackson, Josephine, Lane, Lincoln, Linn, Marion, Morrow, Polk, Sherman, Umatilla, Wasco, Washington, Wheeler and Yamhill counties.