It’s time to update Portland’s Climate Action Plan, and the Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability wants your comments and ideas.

The city is working on an update to their Climate Action Plan, the overarching goal of which is to achieve a 40 percent reduction in carbon emissions (compared to 1993 levels) by 2030, and 80 percent by 2050.

The bureau is taking public comment on the draft 2015 version of the plan through April 10, said BPS Sustainability Manager Michael Armstrong. People interested in looking at the draft can find a current version here. Armstrong said they’ll take comments via email, phone, or in person until the cutoff date. Detailed instructions on how to comment are available at the BPS link provided.

BPS hosted two open houses in March to educate Portlanders on the 2015 version, and Armstrong said he heard continued support for the program.

“There weren’t really any big surprises for anyone at the open houses,” he said. “They support the general direction of the plan, and we really heard things we already knew, like that we need to get away from fossil fuels and that East Portland needs to be more walkable and bikeable.”

One of the goals BPS will focus on is creating neighborhood equity with the intention of reducing carbon emissions.

“We know, looking back, that people of color and low income households haven’t had the same access to energy saving programs,” he said. “We need to change that.”

One of those changes could come in the form of paving roads and building sidewalks in East Portland, Armstrong said.

“If we really want to make it possible for people to walk, even to the bus stop, we need to make it possible for them to get there safely,” he said.

In 1993, Portland became the first city in the United States to implement a carbon emissions reduction plan—called the Carbon Dioxide Reduction Strategy. In 2009 the city revisited and updated the plan, and Portland City Council passed a new 70-page Climate Action Plan, which included 93 action steps, such as reducing solid waste and providing financing for retrofitting homes with solar electric generators.

Despite rapid population and job growth, Portland and Multnomah County, by 2013, had reduced carbon emissions levels by 14 percent from 1990 rates.

“How are we doing?” Armstrong said. “Well, carbon emissions are down. We still have a long way to go, but we know we can’t wait.”

The city, as usual, is being proactive. At the end of 2014, BPS launched an informational campaign to educate Portland commercial building owners about what will be required of them if, in April 2015, the city council approves a proposed ordinance requiring them to participate in an Energy Star-affiliated Energy Performance Reporting Policy.

If passed, the ordinance would require owners of buildings larger than 50,000 square feet to begin reporting energy usage to the city by April 2016. Owners of buildings between 20,000 and 50,000 square feet would need to begin reporting energy usage by April 2017.

“There are 5,000 commercial buildings in Portland,” said Alisa Kane, BPS’s green building and development manager. “They’re responsible for nearly 25 percent of Portland’s carbon emissions and are the city's second-largest emitter of pollutants.”

The thought is, if building owners know how much energy they’re using, they’re more likely to take steps to reduce that number, Kane said.

There are at least 10 other major metropolitan areas that require energy tracking and reporting. Those cities have found that owners were able to reduce energy emissions by about 2.5 percent, just by tracking and reporting the data, Kane said.

Knowledge is power, and hopefully the power coming from this particular knowledge will be green. Under the ordinance being proposed to city council, failure to reduce carbon emissions won’t result in fines or other punitive action, but that might not always be the case.

The draft 2015 Climate Action Plan broaches the idea of carbon pricing. In 2014, Oregon’s Legislative Revenue Office reported that a state carbon tax “would have very small net economic impacts while reducing carbon emissions.” The draft 2015 Climate Action Plan suggests that, if the state doesn’t move forward with carbon pricing, Portland and Multnomah County should adopt a local carbon pricing mechanism.

After the comment period ends on April 10, BPS staff will make last minute tweaks to the draft, Armstrong said. On April 15, BPS will brief city council on the final version. Council is tentatively scheduled to vote on April 22.