Flagstaff staff outline 2025 update to carbon neutrality plan; plan keeps 2030 target, adds equity and resilience workstreams

Joanie Nieman, identified in the meeting as the Climate Action (Section) Director, gave the commission a detailed briefing on the city's planned 2025 update to Flagstaff's Carbon Neutrality Plan. Nieman said the original plan grew from community work begun in 2017 and adopted in 2021 and that the update will focus on six areas: updated emissions data and projections, an equity scan, a resilience/adaptation emphasis, a municipal operations extract, a content redesign (to improve accessibility), and public engagement and dashboards.

Nieman framed the update as a progress check: the city will report where community and municipal emissions stand relative to the baseline used in the plan (2016), document which actions have started or been completed, and revise the projections accordingly. Nieman said the plan's current structure anticipated a blend of emissions reductions and carbon dioxide removal: "by 2030, we will have reduced our emissions by about 46%" and the remainder would be addressed through carbon dioxide removal approaches the city would purchase or partner to provide.

On carbon dioxide removal, Nieman described multiple…