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Bozeman Climate Team presents new goals and vision statement for 2020 Climate Plan

Bozeman City Commission will hear review new goals and mission statement for the city's Climate Action Plan
Posted at 11:52 AM, Dec 16, 2019
and last updated 2019-12-16 16:20:19-05

BOZEMAN — The Bozeman City Commission has taken a number of steps over the years to address issues related to climate change on a local level.

Earlier this fall, a Bozeman Climate Change Team was assembled to help build a plan around certain goal and actions to build resiliency to the impacts of climate change.

“We’ve developed a climate team," said Bozeman city commissioner Terry Cunningham. "It’s 35 individuals. Many experts in their field. Community members. And it contains a large percentage of high school students, college students and people under 30."

On Monday, members from the climate team will present new draft vision statement, as well as some new goals

The goals that have been identified right now are to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent by 2025.

Another goal for the city: aim for 100 percent renewable energy in terms of electricity by 2030.

The city wants to be carbon-neutral as a community by 2050.

“Each of these are really aggressive goals. And we have to be bold, we have to be thoughtful, but we have to get after it,” said Cunningham

Commissioner Cunningham says some of the responsibility may be on local utility providers.

“We are only as clean as our utility provider. We need to share our goals with them and we need to let them know that their decisions impact Bozeman citizens everyday.”

The Bozeman City Commission says the community’s input from public workshops held earlier this fall were used to develop the new vision statement that will be introduced at the meeting on Monday.