Regional climate collaborative outlines emissions progress, outreach and unmet $500M EPA grant bid

North Las Vegas councilmembers received an update June 18 on the All In Clark County Regional Climate Collaborative’s work, including a regional greenhouse gas inventory, community outreach efforts and a previously proposed regional “building improvement hub” that sought a $500 million U.S. Environmental Protection Agency grant but did not receive award funding.

Veronica Freeman, the city’s grant officer and North Las Vegas representative to the collaborative, introduced the briefing. Freeman said the collaborative includes all five valley municipalities, the Regional Transportation Commission and the Southern Nevada Water Authority and that the group is pursuing regional capacity for climate mitigation and resilience.

Jody Bechtel, assistant director of the Clark County Department of Environment and Sustainability, summarized the sustainability plan and inventory work, noting the collaborative updated its greenhouse gas inventory with 2022 data. “Our total emissions are 26,300,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent,” Bechtel said. She said the collaborative set a 32% reduction goal (aligned with Nevada) for 2030 and that recent data show the region on track to meet that trajectory, though challenges remain.

Robert Bergey, the collaborative’s climate and sustainability program manager, highlighted opportunities in clean energy and building efficiency. He said electricity-sector emissions have fallen even as consumption rose — similar to prior successes in water conservation — and noted rooftop and distributed solar growth: about 102,000 installations across the county as of 2023 data, with more than 6% of 2022–23 installations located in North Las Vegas. Bergey said energy-efficiency programs and rebates are key near‑term tools while longer-term work focuses on cleaner supply and larger programs.

The collaborative described a multi-pronged public-education and outreach effort: 15 community ambassadors staff events, host webinars and distribute toolkits; staff reported 17,869 people reached through events and webinars over the last year and about 889 survey participants in a follow-up survey. Presenters said 68% of survey respondents expressed high concern about climate change and 71% supported regional agency action, but willingness to adopt some measures has declined slightly between surveys.

The group also noted local urban-forestry progress in North Las Vegas — Tree City USA recognition and a lidar-derived tree inventory — and said it is pursuing demonstration projects for shade, cool pavements and resilience hubs (including a cooling/resilience center near Nellis). The collaborative said it had sought an EPA Climate Pollution Reduction Grant to build a regional building‑improvement hub to connect homeowners and building owners with assessments, incentives and contractors; the application was not funded but presenters said the research can be scaled or retooled with alternative funding.

Councilmembers asked about outreach in multiple languages (presenters said materials are available in English, Spanish and Tagalog), about ambassador participation in local events (presenters offered to follow up with staff), and about solar costs and installer reliability; presenters said one near-term priority is energy efficiency and that additional work is needed on installer vetting and longer-term net-metering policy.

No council action was required on the presentation; staff offered to return or follow up with additional information for council events and constituent inquiries.