Agenda - 01-22-2009 - 4l - Laserfiche WebLink

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ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT Meeting Date: January 22, 2009 Action Agenda Item No. 4 - SUBJECT: Cool Counties Program DEPARTMENT: ERCD PUBLIC HEARING: (Y/N) No ATTACHMENT(S): INFORMATION CONTACT: Climate Stabilization Declaration and David Stancil, 245-2590 Resolution Cool Counties Program information PURPOSE: To consider joining the Cool Counties program, a consortium of U.S counties working with the National Association of Counties and the Sierra Club that have pledged to inventory and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2050. This program is linked and complementary to the existing International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) Cities for Climate Protection program, of which Orange County is already a member. BACKGROUND: Orange County, Chapel Hill and Carrboro joined ICLEI's Cities for Climate Protection Program (CCP) in 2003 and 2004, an international consortium of communities administered from ICLEI world headquarters in Toronto, Canada. As called for in the CCP protocol, the three jurisdictions began a process in 2005 to develop an inventory of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and a plan for reducing these emissions. The jurisdictions agreed to conduct a countywide inventory and action plan, and entered into a contract with IES of Toronto. Since that time, ICLEI has opened a U.S. office and begun several related efforts to engage local governments in the U.S. in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Other organizations, including the Sierra Club, have worked in coordination and taken up the mantle of reducing GHG emissions. In 2006, the National Association of Mayors and the Sierra Club created a Cool Cities initiative to promote GHG emissions inventory and reduction. Orange County passed a resolution in support of this effort and in fact joined the Cool Cities municipalities in April 2007. This, in part, led to a new parallel initiative in July of 2007 at the National Association of Counties annual conference. At this conference, a new partnership was formed, headed by the Sierra Club and the counties of King County, Washington and Fairfax County, Virginia to use the Cool Cities and ICLEI model to develop a Cool Counties program for U.S. county governments interested in addressing greenhouse gas emissions. King County agreed to serve as the lead organizing government of Cool Counties (and remains in that role).