Climate Chapter

Emissions for 2015 were lower than baseline, but rising, and too much of the decrease was through purchase of renewable energy credits. The 2019 update is fantastic, detailed, and aggressive, but when was the last inventory and what programs are completed, in progress, in planning, rejected? Resilience/adaptation are critical but mitigation is mandatory. If we can't achieve these goals here, then where?

Climate change is worrisome, but Bellingham is too small to focus on solving climate change--that will involve costs such as increased housing unaffordability while leading to no measurable impact on climate change. Attempts to solve can have results only through measures adopted at higher levels such as national and global. The often-stated goal of providing an example to other cities and regions is unrealistic--Bellingham has too low a profile for anyone outside the city to notice. Increasing homelessness (by making housing more expensive through carbon sequester land use rules and climate change-focused building regulations, for example) is not worth the zero impact on climate change that comes from attempting solutions at the Bellingham city level. (Adapting to the effects of climate change--for example, potential sea rise impact on local harbors and beaches--is a reasonable local strategy)