Richmond council has declared a climate emergency.
The vote was unanimous this evening (Monday) to declare the climate emergency and commit to meeting greenhouse-gas reduction standards set by the UN’s Inter-Government Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
While council rejected the declaration more than a month ago after the majority initially supported it, this time, city staff came back with a comprehensive report outlining initiatives that the city is already doing and a recommendation to up their actions to meet the IPCC goals.
Coun. Michael Wolfe, who had originally brought up the idea a month ago, again brought forward a motion to “declare and confirm” and climate emergency.
Coun. Harold Steves said that Richmond is already a leader with its energy utility, in food security and its dike and flood protection as well as the farm school it’s developing with Kwantlen Polytechnic, but he said the climate emergency declaration is one of the more important items and that the city needs to make “serious changes.”
