By a 10-0 vote–with council member Braxton winston absent—the Charlotte City Council approved an ambitious plan to reduce carbon emissions by 2050.
I honestly have to give the liberal Uptown Paper of Record–aka the Observer– credit for skeptically covering this plan, which would reduce the carbon emissions of North Carolina’s largest—and still growing city –to the level of the world’s poor and underdeveloped countries:
The city’s sustainability director, Rob Phocas, said he expects Charlotte residents now are producing about 12 tons of carbon dioxide each year. The countries where carbon emissions are less than two tons are poor and undeveloped.
He said the two-ton goal aligns Charlotte with the Paris accord, which the Trump administration left earlier this year.
City officials don’t expect Charlotteans to make significant changes to their lifestyles. They hope instead that new technologies will help the city make big strides in lowering the emissions that scientists believe have led to global warming.
“No one is going to get to where we need to be if we aren’t creative and if we aren’t improving technologies,” Phocas said. He said Duke Energy will play a huge role in whatever carbon reductions the city can make, since Duke provides Charlotte’s power.
All council members present supported the resolution, including the two Republicans, Tariq Bokhari and Ed Driggs. Bokhari said it was important for Republicans to support such issues because “environmental sustainability is important.”
I’m sure the council members believe they can make such drastic reductions in carbon emissions without Charlotteans making ‘drastic reductions to their lifestyles’ by building $4 million bike paths and more sidewalks and yes–more light rail lines, though heaven knows how much carbon construction of the light rail line to Lake Norman will emit. I say good with that.
