Charlotte City Council members will hold their last scheduled business meeting of the year on Monday. One item up for consideration is a plan designed to ensure that Charlotte achieves sustainable energy goals and greenhouse gas reductions in the coming decades.
In June, City Council members approved a resolution that says the city will strive to use only zero-carbon energy sources for city vehicles and buildings by 2030. The resolution sets 2050 as the target for Charlotte to become what climate experts call a “low carbon city.” That would mean drastically reducing the overall output of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
Until now, Charlotte hasn’t had a blueprint for achieving these environmental benchmarks. Council members Monday afternoon are expected to vote on a Strategic Energy Action Plan that would provide specific steps to guide the effort. The plan focuses on energy use in buildings and for transportation. It also looks at how energy is generated.
City officials say approving the plan would put Charlotte in line with goals of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement. Nearly 200 nations agreed on rules for implementing that accord at the conclusion of a United Nations-sponsored climate conference in Poland on Saturday.
President Trump declared last year that the United States would pull out of the Paris agreement, but that can’t officially happen until 2020.
Monday's city council meeting begins at 4 p.m. in the government center.