Friends of Flagstaff’s Future (F3) — Tell Coucil Not to Amend Our Carbon Neutrality Plan

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Please email Council or speak at the Council meeting this Tuesday & tell council members not to amend our Flagstaff Carbon Neutrality Plan

A local group, Flagstaff First (FF), has petitioned Council to amend the Flagstaff’s Carbon Neutrality Plan (CNP) to prioritize fire, flood and drought. Many community members told the Council in December and January to not amend the Plan. We need to speak again this Tuesday because FF’s petition is scheduled to be formally considered by City Council this Tuesday, March 26. Council will be deciding whether to or not to amend the CNP.

The community needs to respond to this threat by sending emails to City Council and/or speaking at the Council meeting this Tuesday and asking council members to reject the action requested in the FF petition.

The FF group has been working to erode support for carbon neutrality in City Council for more than a year, questioning the CNP and its urgency, and calling its efforts to reduce carbon emissions in Flagstaff as futile. In 2023, they submitted a citizen petition to Council to add a new priority area of “Fire, Flood, and Drought” to the CNP arguing that these events create large amounts of carbon and that managing them should be a priority of the plan.

This may sound reasonable, but their petition includes the investment of millions of dollars in very specific measures related to fire, flood, and drought, many of which are outside the purview of the city and its jurisdiction. Fire, flood, and drought are, of course, very important issues in Flagstaff and the region, but there are already entities within and beyond the City tasked with responding to and preparing for these events.

If the carbon neutrality plan were to be amended as requested in the Flagstaff First petition, there would no longer be funds or personnel to work on carbon neutrality within Flagstaff. Instead, all resources would be diverted to duplicative efforts related to fire, flood, and drought. This change would effectively eliminate the CNP and make it impossible to achieve its goals, while threatening to bankrupt many City programs.

In order to protect the CNP and ensure its essential work continues, we need to make a show of support, and make it clear to our Council members that our community broadly desires the carbon neutrality plan and continues to support it as is, without the weakening intended by FF.

If you’re concerned about the impact climate change is having in Flagstaff, northern Arizona and around the world, now is the time for you to engage with your community by doing one or more of the following actions:

1) Speak to Council this Tuesday (meetings start at 3:00), only when public comment is accepted for Agenda Item #8. Be sure to fill out and turn in a yellow comment card when you arrive in the chambers. Keep your comments to 3 minutes or less. Be respectful of both the Council and the individuals who are concerned about fire/flood/drought. Doing otherwise will significantly harm our efforts.

2) Send an email to Council about your concerns. Emails will be sent directly to the mayor and council members by using this email address: council@flagstaffaz.gov.

3) Show up at the City Council chambers and bring your friends. Help us to pack the Council chambers with supporters of the CNP!

FF’s message right now is that they are not climate deniers but instead that all available resources should go to fire, flood, and drought. They want to take the current budget for the CNP (which isn’t large) and divided it among efforts to reduce carbon emissions and efforts to combat fire/flood/drought. The FF website states that there is no reason for Flagstaff to pursue carbon neutrality when China and India are continuing to emit carbon at high rates, and they are sticking to this point.

Our message in response to the petition is the following:

• There are many, many active programs and initiatives at the city, county, state, and federal level addressing fire, flood, and drought.
• All such initiatives confront the consequences of climate change. The CNP, with its modest budget, is the only initiative that confronts the causes of climate change. The proposed amendment would dilute this and necessarily direct funds away from emission reduction, hamstringing our efforts to achieve carbon neutrality.
• If communities such as Flagstaff falter and withdraw from these efforts, we are sending a message that these efforts are unachievable, and continued elevated carbon emissions will be a certainty. It is true that no single community can solve this alone, but it will only be solved if single communities step up as Flagstaff has.

Your voice is needed! Please come to the Council chambers this Tuesday at 3:00 to show your support of the CNP without the harmful amendment. Email council prior to Tuesday’s meeting. Speak to Council directly at this Tuesday’s meeting.

Thank you,

Michele James

Executive Director

The Carbon Neutrality Plan

The Carbon Neutrality Plan (CNP) was created in response to the Climate Emergency declared by City Council in 2020. The CNP establishes a vision for how Flagstaff will create a carbon neutral future. The CNP has three goals (CNP, page 6):

1) Achieve carbon neutrality by 2030;

2) Prepare Flagstaff’s communities, systems, and resources to be more resilient to climate change impacts, and;

3) Address climate change in a manner that prioritizes those most impacted and ensures the costs and benefits of climate adaptation and mitigation are equitably distributed.