Regional climate collaborative outlines emissions trends, outreach program and a failed $500 million EPA grant bid

Representatives of the All In Regional Climate Collaborative on June 18 briefed the North Las Vegas City Council on regional emissions trends, ongoing outreach and technical work, and potential next steps for local climate action.

Veronica Freeman, a grant officer representing North Las Vegas on the collaborative, introduced a county presentation delivered by Jody Bechtel, assistant director of Clark County’s Department of Environment and Sustainability, and Robert Bergey, the county’s climate and sustainability program manager.

Bechtel and Bergey said the collaborative updated its greenhouse-gas inventory from 2019 to 2022 and reported total county emissions of about 26,300,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent. They said buildings (energy used to supply buildings) remain the largest source of emissions, with on-road transportation second, and that current data show the county trending toward its statewide-aligned 32% reduction goal by 2030 if current trends continue.

The presenters summarized other regional work: the collaborative prepared a bid to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Climate Pollution Reduction Grant for a proposed $500 million “building improvement hub,” intended as a one-stop resource to assess building energy performance and connect owners to incentives and contractors. "Unfortunately, we did not receive that grant," Bergey said; the proposal was highly competitive and the county is considering breaking the concept into smaller projects or finding alternative funding.

The collaborative also highlighted distributed rooftop solar growth (about 102,000 installations across the county as of 2023) and noted that more than 6% of the recent solar installations in 2022–23 were in North Las Vegas. County staff said participation in NV Energy residential rebate programs nearly doubled in 2023.

On community outreach, staff described an ambassador program that hired 15 local ambassadors, ran more than 100 community events (40 hosted by the collaborative) and 18 webinars, and recorded contact with 17,869 people. Survey work showed 68% of respondents were “very concerned” about climate change and 71% thought regional agencies should take action, though staff said willingness to adopt electrification or other measures had declined slightly between surveys.

Councilmembers asked about multilingual materials (staff said materials are available in English, Spanish and Tagalog) and about opportunities to have ambassadors attend city events; staff offered to follow up. The collaborative also noted successes in North Las Vegas on urban forestry, including a LiDAR tree inventory and Tree City USA recognition, and said the county is exploring resilience hubs, cool-pavement demonstrations and other pilot projects to address heat and the urban heat-island effect.

The briefing was informational; no council action was required.