After a first read by the Greenwich Board of Selectmen on June 23, a second read of a proposed climate emergency resolution left its supporters disappointed.
At the first read, young people testified in support of the resolution, which talks about reducing emissions and ending Town-generated greenhouse gas emissions by December 31, 2030.
Isabelle Harper, from the GHS class of 2022, said the Greenwich Environmental Advocacy Group (GEAG) had introduced the resolution.
“In the coming decades, scientists have predicted increasingly destructive models of how the global climate is going to change if we continue with the status quo. More severe and frequent natural disasters, droughts and heat waves, to name a few. The tipping point, they have stated, is going to be 2030 to 2035, after which changes to our global climate will be irreversible.”
“It is a scary future for people my age,” Harper said. “This is an emergency for us.”
Nicole Freitas, a climate policy intern at Save the Sound, said the impacts of climate change are already resulting in floods, storms, loss of resources and the growing cost of access to energy.
“Our shoreline exposes thousands of residents to flood risks, and in tropical storms Irene and Sandy, Greenwich experienced devastating flooding and power outages,” Freitas continued, adding that many were still dealing with the aftermath of Ida last September. “Scientists predict that these storms will only intensify and become more frequent in coming years.”
“In the end, it will be my generation that will be disproportionately affected by the climate crisis,” Freitas added.
First Selectman Fred Camillo said Greenwich was already starting to prepare for the future with alternative energy sources.
He said he’d established an Energy Management Advisory Committee and a Sustainability Committee, and that EV charging stations were installed at town hall and money was budgeted for two electric vehicles in the town’s fleet.
“Little by little, we’d like to stay in line with what the plans are for the major car manufacturers. By 2040 they’re going to all electric cars.”
Camillo suggested the language of the resolution be “more inclusive.” The resolution refers to “black, Indigenous, and other communities of color, as well as low-income communities, minority communities” as suffering the most from climate disruption and pollution.
He said rather than naming groups of people, to “focus more on socioeconomic.”
And while he said he agreed with the overall goal of the resolution, going fossil-free was expensive.
“People are on fixed incomes and in many places paying $7 a gallon for gas,” he said. “There are people now very angry about that. We don’t want to hurt people who cannot afford to get an electric vehicle. Not everybody has the ability to flip a switch and go totally gas free and fossil fuel free existence.”
Democratic Selectwoman Janet Stone McGuigan, who co-chairs the Sustainability Committee with Wetlands and Environmental Affairs director for Greenwich Pat Sesto, said her committee fully endorsed the resolution.
McGuigan talked about the Electrify Your Life Expo last month, and noted there are electric cars that are extremely affordable, including the Nissan Leaf.
Selectwoman Lauren Rabin said as a new grandmother, she was conscious of the world young people would inherit.
She said she would recommend expanding GHS school bus eligibility to students who live 1 mile from school. (Currently GHS students must live 2+ miles from school to qualify. To qualify for bus service, elementary school students must live 1+ mile away, and middle students must live 1-1/2+ miles away.)
“I think that can help,” she said. “I appreciate the effort, and respect it and admire it.”
Second read: July 14.
At the July 14 selectmen meeting Gail Lauridsen expanded on Ms Rabin’s idea.
“One way to significantly reduce the consumption of fuel and its resulting emissions would be to immediately mandate that all students who live more than one mile from GHS take the bus to and from school,” Lauridsen said.
Lauridsen said she had done some some calculations and determined that roughly 2/3 of the approximately 2,797 students at GHS are either driven or drive themselves to school.
“If these kids all took the bus we would save 134,280 gallons of gas per year,” she said.
“Mandating school bus usage would be a great way to keep the battle local and very personal for these kids,” Lauridsen said. “Policies such as this one, taken on willingly and with no additional tax dollars, would have a significant measurable impact on our environment and our quality of town life.”
She said it would not take an emergency declaration to make changes in bus policy and usage.
“These are the projects. Not by submitting to globalists, but by taking it on at the town level, making personal sacrifices, and if they’re willing to do that, then they have far more clout,” Lauridsen added.
Janet Stone McGuigan argued that the resolution would not cede town powers to federal and state interests. “If you look at the working clauses of the current draft, it does not.”
“I read the resolution,” Lauridsen said. “The resolution mentions pursuing federal and state dollars. With those federal and state dollars always comes strings attached. We saw it with Covid,” she said. “When you take federal money, you cede power. When you take state money, you cede power.”
Rob Liflander from Riverside said he appreciated Lauridsen’s logic regarding kids driving to school.
But, he said, “I would offer a counter-point to both you, Fred, and Gail regarding government oversight. Every time the government changes laws, it’s not always encroaching on people’s freedoms.”
“I think the word emergency is very important. It sends a message. The UN Panel on Climate change has been screaming the word emergency for the past five years. Scientists are not prone to exaggeration,” Liflander said.
“We’re putting money in the budget for electric vehicles and have our first few EV spaces over here. I’d like to do a little more, but we also have to balance everything with the budget,” Camillo said.
“From my personal point of view, an emergency is something that is right there, and is like a life-and-death situation, immediately,” Camillo said. “We can say this will become an emergency, and that’s my position. We’re working to avoid that.”
“We know this is not happening tomorrow. This is not happening next year. The scientists themselves have told us the timeline,” Camillo added. “An emergency is exigent circumstances right here and now.”
McGuigan disagreed. “Organizations no less than the United Nations and Harvard University are calling this an emergency. They’re saying we have less than 20 years to slow down the rate of global warming from 2.0 degrees to 1.5.”
“I have great respect for those organizations, but they have been wrong in the past,” Camillo said.
Philip Dodson said the resolution was unnecessary.
“As a town, we’re already quite involved with making adjustments to climate change and energy efficiency. We’re replacing our town lights with LED lights. We’re taking it into consideration with construction of the Eastern Greenwich Civic Center. We don’t need an emergency declaration to continue doing what we’re doing.”
He asked about Camillo’s his recent press release with “clarification” saying students and their mentors would be developing language that is acceptable on this matter.
“Who exactly are these mentors, and what groups or organizations are involved?” Dodson asked.
Camillo described Myra Klockenbrink and Ms McGuigan as mentors.
McGuigan said she didn’t describe herself as a mentor, but rather as a supporter.
Mr. Dodson said the high school students were working with the local chapter of an international group promoting emergency declarations at all levels of government worldwide.
“We should know who the mentors are and the groups they’re associated with,” he added.
McGuigan said 350.org was the lead organization and that Greta Thunberg is affiliated with it. She said the situation was no different than the GHS Roots & Shoots club, which is affiliated with a larger organization founded by Jane Goodall.
No vote was taken on the students’ proposed Climate Emergency Resolution.
RESOLUTION DECLARING A CLIMATE EMERGENCY – Version 5/24/22
WHEREAS, in the past decade the Town of Greenwich has experienced extreme weather, including severe storms, drought, and intense heat, which has resulted in increased risks to public health and safety due to an urban heat island effect, loss of power and basic utilities, high riverine floodwaters, inland and coastal flooding, and reduced urban tree canopy; and
WHEREAS, the Town of Greenwich is a coastal community and is vulnerable to damage by rising sea levels; and
WHEREAS, the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), isa well-regarded international organization established under the United Nations for the interchange of ideas on climate change and to provide governments at all levels with the scientific information they need to develop policies to address climate change; and
WHEREAS, the IPCC notes in its 2014 Fifth Assessment Report, “Continued emission of greenhouse gasses will cause further warming and long-lasting changes in all components of the climate system, increasing the likelihood of severe, pervasive, and irreversible impacts for people and ecosystems” (1); and
WHEREAS, atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations have increased from approximately 280 parts per million (ppm) in the 18th century 7to 414 ppm in 2020, and human activities currently release over 30 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year (2); and
WHEREAS, the IPCC concludes with high confidence that at warming levels beyond 2°C by 2100, risks of extirpation, extinction and ecosystem collapse escalate rapidly,and climate impacts on ocean and coastal ecosystems will be exacerbated by increases in intensity, reoccurrence and duration of marine heatwaves (3); and
WHEREAS, there is a direct,linear relationship between the total amount of CO2 released by human activity and the level of warming at the Earth’s surface and the US is responsible for the largest share of historical emissions with some 20% of the global total; (4) and
WHEREAS, in April 2016, world leaders from 175 countries, including the United States, recognized the threat of climate change and the urgent need to combat it by signing the Paris Agreement, pledging to work to keep warming “well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels” and to “pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C”; and
WHEREAS, in October 2018, an IPCC special report projected that limiting warming tothe 1.5°C target this century will require an unprecedented transformation of every sector of the global economy over the next 12 years; and
WHEREAS, in March 2022, IPCC climate scientists said, “the scientific evidence is unequivocal: climate change is a threat to human well being and the health of the planet. Any further delay in concerted global action will miss a brief and rapidly closing window to secure a livable future”;(5) and
WHEREAS, restoring a safe climate urgently requires a comprehensive mobilization to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across all sectors, to implement mitigation strategies to remove greenhouse gasses[CO2, methane & Nitrous Oxide] from the atmosphere,and to adopt measures to protect all species from the most severe consequences of climate change;
WHEREAS, black, Indigenous, and other communities of color, as well as low-income communities, minority communities in particular, in the United States and around the world have suffered the gravest consequences of the extractive economy since its inception and also suffer first and most acutely from climate disruption and environmental hazards, including air, water, and land pollution; and
WHEREAS, higher levels of global warming lead to greater constraints on societies and climate change increases the threat of poverty and food insecurity.
WHEREAS, it is vital that the Town of Greenwich recognizes and starts to address the challenges presented by the climate crisis.
NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT THE GREENWICH BOARD OF SELECTMEN declares:
1. the existence of a climate emergency, which threatens the natural world upon which our community, region and country rely; and;
2. this declaration of a climate emergency provides the foundation upon which the Town of Greenwich shall develop future priorities, policies, plans, budgets, and actions; and
3. that it shall be the policy of the Town of Greenwich that all Town department heads, committees, and commissions shall establish plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by both the Town and the wider community, placing the highest priority on providing the benefits of a clean-energy economy to all community members on an equitable basis; and
4. that the Greenwich Board of Selectmen agrees to work with the Board of Estimate and Taxation and the Representative Town Meeting to establish an emergency mobilization effort that, with ongoing Town funding and appropriate financial and regulatory assistance from state and federal authorities, will aim to end Town-generated greenhouse gas emissions by or before December 31, 2030 in compliance with State law adopted in 2022 (6), and to adopt techniques to safely reduce Townwide carbon emissions; and
5. that the Board of Selectmen understands that an equitable transition to a fossil-fuel-free economy requires full community participation and that it will work with community leaders to ensure that all Greenwich residents are represented in the process; and
6. that the Town of Greenwich will advocate for coordinated climate action at the municipal, regional, state, and federal levels to restore a safe and sustainable climate for all living beings on Earth
(1) International Panel on Climate Change Report
(2) US Environmental Protection Agency Causes of Climate Change
(3) IPCC Climate Change Impacts and Risks
(4) Analysis: Which countries are historically responsible for climate change?
IPCC Chapter 8: Poverty, Livelihoods and Sustainable Development page 3
(6) CT Mirror: Senate passes and sends to House a CT Clean Air Act
Correction: Though the agenda described the resolution item as a second read, the second read was postponed and the discussion on the resolution took place during public comment