Climate Connection -
Alaska Climate Policy
This column has brought your attention to four natural feedback loops that are increasing Earth’s global temperature and the threat of tipping points leading to irreversible warming beyond human control. Scientists warn us that transformational action is urgent now to avoid even more intolerable losses from food insecurity, severe weather, sea level rise, and migration from uninhabitable parts of the earth. Federal action to stop human greenhouse gas emissions is stalled in Congress and by the Supreme Court. Thus, states and municipalities become even more important agents for climate action.
The nonprofit Climate Xchange focuses on state-level climate policy. In Alaska, this is virtually non-existent. In June 2022, Climate-XChange’s State Climate Policy Network Map stated that Alaska has not made progress on climate state-level policy and has set no emissions reduction goals. The group rates each state on 62 policies that can contribute to moving toward international goals that are required to meet the 2015 Paris Accords of keeping global temperatures below 2 degrees Centigrade and hopefully below 1.5 degrees above preindustrial temperatures. The 62 policies are grouped in seven categories: Climate Governance and Equity; Adaptation and Resilience; Electricity; Buildings and Efficiency; Transportation: Agriculture; and Industry, Materials, and Waste Management. Progress in any of these categories would be advantageous. Examples are electric grid modernization, updating building codes, and developing a public green bank that facilitates private investment in climate-resilient infrastructure.
In the absence of climate action at the state level, communities must become a locus of climate action and adaptation. In Sitka, baby steps have been taken by the Climate Action Task Force, which recommended that the Assembly address municipal building and fleet emissions by 2030. However, municipal emissions accounted for only 4% of community emissions at the time of the last Sitka community-wide greenhouse gas emissions inventory in 2008. At that time, no maritime or aviation emissions were estimated. To date, Assembly resolutions do not reflect the urgency of our climate emergency or public emissions reduction. The Assembly did not include the climate emergency as a topic for strategic planning for the next 5 years.
As we head into election season, we need to inquire of all candidates what their climate platform is. This is the case for elected municipal positions, the Alaska Legislature and governor, and our federal congressional representatives. The next years are critical. Action is needed well before 2030 when our global emissions are supposed to be halved to keep global temperature from rising 2 degrees Centigrade above pre-industrial levels. But, we really need to keep the global temperature rise below 1.5 degrees if we want to decrease the risk of multiple tipping points in earth’s systems.
Locally, not only must the City act to reduce its own emissions but should facilitate citizen and business action to electrify transport and heating—efforts that will enable a more robust local economy. That is what more self-sufficiency for adaptation requires of all of us.
Kay Kreiss, Transition Sitka
Stanley Kermit Evan
Dies in Anchorage
Stanley Kermit Evan died on July 12 in Anchorage.
Anyone having information on how to contact his next of kin is asked to call Legacy Funeral Homes Kehl’s Chapel, 907-344-1497.
SAFV Board Meets
The board of Sitkans Against Family Violence will meet 4 p.m. Monday, July 25, at Centennial Hall in Room 5. The meeting is open to the public.
