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Carrboro collaborated with other jurisdictions in Orange County and ICLEI to complete the first county- wide Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory for the baseline year of 2005. In 2011, a UNC Capstone Team completed a community scale inventory specifically for Carrboro based on data for 2009. Every year beginning in 2012, the Town has updated the municipal operations inventory, and in 2015, a second UNC Capstone Team updated the community inventory based on data for 2012 and assisted the Town in entering the inventory data into the ClearPath software which will help the Town with future climate action planning steps. These inventories help establish a baseline and guide the community to develop and implement strategies to mitigate emissions by understanding the sources and quantity of emissions. They also provide a means to monitor changes over time. Establis,fti,il inissions ° O 1ff j0f' 5 . O1t 5 The county -wide inventory included an initial attempt to identify potential goals in terms of "tiers" of "least aggressive" to "most aggressive" climate action strategies. In 2009, the Board of Aldermen passed a resolution resolving that the Town "will seek, and will facilitate the community at large, to cut CO2 emissions by its proportion of the amount which is required to stabilize the climate back to <350 ppm of CO2 ..., and asks staff to evaluate how to achieve this target for municipal operations and the community'. s As part of municipal inventories, annual reduction goals of 2 -7% have been discussed and the 2014 plan set a goal of a reduction in emissions from municipal operations on the order of 5- 10% within a 2 year time frame. Other notable climate goals are listed in the table below.' In its Clean Power Plan to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the power sector, EPA has set a unique target emissions rate for each state to achieve by 2030. 8 states are asked to reduce emissions by 41% -50%, 24 states are asked to reduce emissions by 31 % -40 %, and the remainder of the states are asked to reduce emissions by 30% or less. 8 large US cities have signed on to the Carbon Neutrality Alliance. 7 More information on previous inventories is available on the Town's website: hYYIr. w rboiro orv2l Greenho se Gas invenY�irs .. / vn i< 8 1990 is when global CO2 concentrations first surpassed 350 ppm. To date, Carrboro emissions have not been estimated for 1990. Town staff have asked those providing support with completing emissions inventories to attempt to estimate emissions for 1990. The uncertainties due to the lack of data and difficulty deriving credible assumptions have proven too great to complete this task. It is certainly hypothetically possible to "backcast" emissions. For example, some factors could lead to lower per capita emissions such as industry /technology standards (e.g. more efficient vehicles, buildings, and appliances), more availability of transit and bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure, economic factors leading to changing behavior (e.g., fuel costs), and growing awareness and concern. Other factors could lead to higher per capita emissions, such as suburbanization, less affordable housing locally, and social /cultural norms and consumer choices with higher footprints (e.g., larger vehicles and homes and less active lifestyles and more emphasis on comfort and convenience) leading to more single occupancy vehicle trips, vehicle miles traveled (this has been documented) and use of fossil fuels. Assumptions could also be derived from national /international reports, however the bias that could be introduced is uncertain. ' Appendix 2 outlines a hypothetical example of a "typical" American household becoming carbon neutral in 10 years. 5