Larimer County is climate smart and ready for the future – Loveland Reporter-Herald

Our Larimer County Board of Commissioners is committed to protecting our environment, preserving our natural resources and building a more resilient community. I am excited to share our progress on Climate Smart Future Ready, our plan to address the growing risks associated with deteriorating air quality, intensifying weather conditions and the increasing frequency of natural disasters resulting from the evolution of our climate.

Our plan was finalized this year in March, and now the action teams are meeting to implement the plan. We knew it was important to include the community in every phase of planning. The action teams include not only 10 county departments, but also 11 community organizations: the North Front Range Metropolitan Planning Organization (NFRMPO), Carbon Neutral Group, Drive Clean Colorado, Poudre Food Partnership, Poudre Valley Community Farms, Northern Colorado Foodshed Project, Larimer. Conservation District, CSU Extension, CSU Climate Initiative and our municipal partners in Loveland and Fort Collins.

These teams have identified areas of focus such as our built environment, circular economy, business and employment, mobility, natural environment and agriculture. Within these focus areas are 17 strategies with 24 actions and 125 tactics to carry out these actions. We want to be clear and our progress on these actions can be tracked by visiting our interactive dashboard at larimer.org/csfr.

Together, we have set a community objective for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for 2030. We want to exceed a 45% reduction in GHGs and aim for a greater reduction of 60%.

The county is also working on related actions to improve air quality, as we are in the Severe Ground-level Ozone Nonattainment Zone. These actions are designed to reduce the impact on disproportionately affected communities by sharing climate-related health risks and solutions. The Larimer County Department of Health and Environment will be rolling out new strategies to address air quality issues, and these efforts can be tracked on its website: larimer.gov/health/environmental-health/ air-quality. Our Board of Directors is also engaged in climate and air quality strategies at the regional and state levels.

As a member of the Regional Air Quality Council (RAQC) and chair of the Nonattainment Area Air Pollution Mitigation Enterprise (NAAPME), I have worked on initiatives to improve air quality, particularly unhealthy ground-level ozone in our northern Front Range communities. . During this legislative session, RAQC introduced a bill, HB 1341, which allows local governments to enact ordinances stricter than state idling standards. In the fall, the NAAPME Board of Directors will likely open applications to fund multimodal transportation projects that reduce ground-level ozone and address the needs of communities disproportionately impacted by poor air quality.

Additionally, the Larimer County Board of Commissioners, as members of Colorado Communities for Climate Action, supported and testified in favor of 28 bills during this legislative session that aligned on the Climate Smart Future Ready objectives. These bills include HB 1379, Regulate Dredge & Fill Activities in State Waters, which will protect state waters that were excluded from protection in the U.S. Supreme Court’s Sackett decision, and HB 1338 , Cumulative Impacts & Environmental Justice, which creates a task force that will provide recommendations on how to create environmental justice in our state.

We are proud of what we have done to protect our environment and we are committed to continuing this work.

Kristin Stephens is a Larimer County Commissioner representing all of Larimer County.