Kansas City’s new climate protection plan: Here are its goals, how you can get involved
Kansas City has unveiled a draft of its newest climate protection and resilience plan.
Its main goal: reducing greenhouse gas emissions and addressing the impacts of climate change in Kansas City, including flooding and extreme heat, while maintaining a focus on equity.
The city’s first climate plan was made official in 2008, also with a focus on greenhouse gases. But the city last year decided that bolder steps were needed to combat the climate crisis.
In November, City Hall declared a climate emergency, and the city’s climate protection steering committee was tasked with drafting the climate plan. That plan was made public Wednesday evening.
“Kansas City is already experiencing climate change through hotter temperatures, drought and flooding,” the plan reads. “As global temperatures increase, our community will likely continue to see more frequent and intense heat waves, more severe flooding, increased air pollutants and diseases and more people displaced from their homes because of these disasters.”
The plan’s goal is straight-forward: Achieve carbon neutrality in Kansas City by 2040. But this time the plan, unlike in previous years, focuses on achieving this goal through a lens of equity and resiliency.
Equity-focused
Marginalized communities are more likely to be more severely impacted by climate change.
Knowing this, the city sought out volunteers, called climate justice workers, to go to historically marginalized neighborhoods and gather feedback on how communities are most impacted by climate change.
They found that while flooding is a concern across the metro, many effects of climate change are focused in the middle of the city where heat island mapping has shown temperatures can be several degrees warmer than the outskirts of the city.
They heard from community members in central Kansas City, who asked that the city use vacant lots for sustainability projects and for better access to healthy, local food.
In the Northland, citizens asked for investments in native landscaping, community gardens and solar power. In south Kansas City, people wanted expanded bicycle and pedestrian paths and sustainable new developments.
Carbon neutrality
Carbon neutrality means that the carbon removed from the atmosphere equals the carbon emitted into the atmosphere by the city.
Since 2005, Kansas City has reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 24%, in large part due to the 2020 stay-at-home order that significantly reduced the number of vehicles on the roads, according to the committee. But if no intentional changes are made soon, emissions are expected to rise again as more people move to town and the economy grows.
The majority of Kansas City’s greenhouse gas emissions come from burning fossil fuels to power homes and businesses and to fuel vehicles, the committee found.
As a result, their plan focuses on six areas: mobility, energy supply, natural systems, homes and buildings, food, and waste and materials.
Here are some of the goals outlined in the plan:
Mobility:
▪ Expand current bicycle and walking infrastructure to encourage transportation other than vehicles.
▪ Expand public transit.
▪ Improve congested traffic areas so fewer cars sit idling.
▪ Promote low and no-emission vehicles.
Energy supply:
▪ Add more renewable energy sources to the utility grid.
▪ Generate more renewable energy in neighborhoods and commercial areas.
Natural systems:
▪ Better manage stormwater runoff using natural systems.
▪ Promote regenerative, ecologically healthy soils and landscapes.
▪ Plant more trees and expand the metro’s natural areas.
▪ Focus on a sustainable water supply.
Homes and buildings:
▪ Increase efficiency in public and commercial buildings.
▪ Make homes more efficient, durable and affordable.
▪ Introduce clean electricity into more homes.
Food:
▪ Produce more food locally.
▪ Make healthy and sustainable food more accessible to all.
Waste and materials:
▪ Put less waste, including organic waste, in landfills; expand composting.
▪ Reduce illegal dumping.
▪ Expand the city’s reuse and repair program.
Community input
Community members are invited to share their thoughts on the plan through April 12. People can sign up for an online public overview of the plan set for 6 p.m. March 23.
Comments can be submitted by emailing oeq@kcmo.org or through the city’s landing page at https://playbook.kcmo.gov/CPRP-Mobilize.
Any revisions will be made by the climate plan steering committee by April 25, and the final plan is set to go before City Council for a vote on May 4.
This story was originally published March 17, 2022 at 1:10 PM.
