Resolution 15510CITY OF ALAMEDA RESOLUTION NO. 15510
ENDORSE DECLARATION OF A CLIMATE EMERGENCY AND
REQUEST REGIONAL COLLABORATION ON AN IMMEDIATE JUST
TRANSITION AND EMERGENCY MOBILIZATION EFFORT TO
RESTORE A SAFE CLIMATE
WHEREAS, as of February 2019, 194 United Nations member governments
recognized the threat of climate change and the urgent need to combat it by signing the
Paris Agreement, agreeing to keep warming "well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels"
and to "pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C"; and
WHEREAS, the death and destruction already caused by global warming of
approximately 1 oc has increased and intensified wildfires, floods, rising seas, diseases,
droughts, and extreme weather, and
WHEREAS, national and international security experts have identified climate
change as a significant threat to the security of the United States and the stability of the
international community, and
WHEREAS, the State of California Ocean Protection Council, in its 2018 Rising
Seas in California report, projects an increase between a medium-high risk aversion
scenario of 6.9 feet of sea level rise in the San Francisco Bay by 21 00 and an extreme
risk aversion scenario of 1 0 feet; and
WHEREAS, restoring a safe and stable climate requires an emergency
mobilization to reach zero greenhouse gas emissions across all sectors, to rapidly and
safely draw down or remove all the excess carbon from the atmosphere, and to implement
measures to protect all people and species from the consequences of current facts and
projections of additional, abrupt climate change; and
WHEREAS, core to a socially just response is ensuring equity is centered in
climate actions in a framework that ensures sustainability for present and future
generations and supports self-determination and the maintenance of culture, tradition,
and deep democracy, while supporting the belief that people around the world have a
right to clean, healthy and adequate air, water, land, food, education, and shelter, as well
as living wages and the attainment of basic human needs for all; and
WHEREAS, the City of Alameda and community members including Community
Action for a Sustainable Alameda (CASA) have begun a robust process to create a newly
revised and expanded Climate Action and Resiliency Plan (Plan) that identifies
Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions reduction targets for 2030 and 2050 that meet or
exceed legislated federal and California objectives and targets; and
WHEREAS, the City of Alameda, as the Bay Area's largest island city, faces an
existential crisis from sea-level rise and must act as a global and regional leader by
transitioning to an ecologically, socially, and economically regenerative economy and by
acting at emergency speed in a unified regional climate adaptation and mobilization effort.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the City of Alameda declares that a
climate emergency threatens our city, region, state, nation, civilization, humanity and the
natural world; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the City of Alameda commits to citywide action
that is rooted in equity, self-determination, culture, tradition, deep democracy, and the
belief that people locally and around the world have right to clean, healthy and adequate
air, water, land, food, education and shelter; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that an urgent global climate mobilization effort to
reverse global warming is needed as quickly as possible towards zero net emissions no
later than 2030, and that the City of Alameda should actively participate in an effort to
safely draw down carbon from the atmosphere, and accelerate adaptation and resilience
strategies in preparation for intensifying climate impacts; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the City of Alameda commits to educating our
residents about the climate emergency and working to catalyze a just transition and
urgent climate mobilization effort at the local, state, national, and global levels to provide
maximum protection for our residents to include Alameda's unhoused population,
indigenous, low-income, and/or communities of color specifically, as well as all the people
and species of the world; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the City of Alameda underscores the need for
full community participation, inclusion, and support, and recognizes that the residents of
Alameda, community organizations (including CASA), faith, youth, labor, business,
academic institutions, homeowners' associations, and environmental, economic, science-
based, racial, gender, family and disability justice and indigenous, immigrant and
women's rights organizations and other such allies will be integral to the leadership of the
mobilization effort; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the City of Alameda acknowledges that there is
still time to act and that as a city, known to come together in support of large efforts and
committed to addressing this crisis, we can work together to make the necessary change
in order to do so; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the City of Alameda joins a nationwide call for
a regional just transition away from fossil fuels and urgent climate mobilization
collaborative effort focused on transforming our region, enacting policies that dramatically
reduce heat-trapping emissions, and rapidly catalyzing a mobilization at all levels of
government to restore a safe climate; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alameda City Council supports the City's
ongoing development of a Climate Action and Resiliency Plan, including the development
of measurable climate-related goals for 2030 and 2050;
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alameda City Council recognizes that in
order to meet these goals, the City must continue to formulate and implement subsequent
phases of mitigation and resiliency plans as soon as practicable, along with priority
programs and projects both locally and with regional partners to secure a sustainable
environment, infrastructure, commerce and living conditions for all residents; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alameda City Council directs the Interim
City Manager to work with the Department of Public Works to identify, within the Climate
Action and Resiliency Plan, a Climate point person and appropriate internal structure to
support ongoing climate action and accountability and identify a reporting timeline and
process for identifying progress in meeting the plan's goals, including adding a Climate
Impacts section to all council staff reports that provides meaningful information on how
proposed actions will impact GHG reduction efforts.
*****
I, the undersigned, hereby certify that the foregoing Resolution was duly and
regularly adopted and passed by the Council of the City of Alameda in regular meeting
assembled on the 19th day of March, 2019, by the following vote to wit:
AYES: Councilmembers Daysog, Knox White, Oddie, Vella and
Mayor Ezzy Ashcraft-5.
NOES: None.
ABSENT: None.
ABSTENTIONS: None.
IN WITNESS, WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and affixed the official
seal of said City this 20th day of March, 2019.
APPR~V~D AS TO FORM: //
IP!t u, CLU I{ llA~
Michael H. Roush, Interim City Attorney
City of Alameda
Lara Weisiger, C t
City of Alameda