SOME TERMS, FOR YOUR ENJOYMENT
When a city, county, or country achieves "net zero" emissions, it is sequestering (removing from the atmosphere) the same amount of emissions as it's emitting. Therefore, its carbon footprint is 0.
A Resolution is a document that a local government body can pass. Passing a Resolution expresses a commitment to something. For example, the Resolution we're currently trying to get passed would commit the County to creating a Climate Action Plan (CAP). Other examples of Resolutions relevant to the local climate action scene:
-
Climate Emergency Resolution (CER): a sort of natural disaster declaration but for climate change (more information under "CER" tab)
-
Youth Climate Inheritance Resolution: the Resolution that the city of Grand Marais passed in 2017. committing the city to creating a CAP
-
Townships can also pass Resolutions in support of a County-level Resolution. For example, Lutsen could pass a Resolution pushing the County Board to commit to creating a CAP.
When a city, county, or country achieves "carbon neutral" status, it is emitting no carbon dioxide. We generally consider carbon neutrality to be better than net zero.
A Climate Emergency Resolution (CER) does not contain any commitment to action, but instead serves as a sort of natural disaster declaration but for climate change. Passing a CER puts pressure on international/higher levels of government to address the climate crisis. The current number of global citizens living under a government that has passed a CER now totals about 1 billion.
​
Both Cook County and Grand Marais have passed CERs.
​
Another benefit of a CER is that it allows us to move beyond the question of whether climate change is something that we should address at all. Once a CER has been passed, we can point to it as a sign of agreement that something should be done. We're hoping that the County's CER will help us get our CAP initiative through.
A Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) is a plan that a local government writes and passes that outlines the financing and timing for capital projects. The County currently has a multimillion-dollar CIP in the works, which focuses primarily on infrastructure improvement. Some provisions in the CIP allocate funding for increasing County building efficiency, electrifying County buildings, and installing solar on County building roofs.
​
These are very exciting provisions. We also recognize that they only take steps to reduce emissions from the County as an institution (as opposed to residential and business as well), while we need much more substantial decarbonization efforts to contribute ot meeting statewide emissions goals.
​
That's why we're proposing a CAP that would address all emissions.
A Climate Action Plan (CAP) is a document that outlines how a region plans on achieving its emissions-reduction goals. The committee in charge of writing a CAP usually starts by taking a greenhouse gas inventory (which tells us where the bulk of our emissions come from) and then using that information to plan out projects to reduce those emissions.
​
Grand Marais has a CAP; we're currently working on getting one for Cook County. For more information, see our CAP page.
Moving away from carbon dioxide-emitting practices. In the electricity and transportation sectors, this term is often synonymous with moving away from fossil fuels.