Dubuque council hears 2025 greenhouse‑gas inventory and consultants propose a science‑based 2030 target

Dubuque City Council on June 15 received a presentation of the city’s 2025 communitywide greenhouse‑gas inventory and heard a recommendation to consider an ambitious science‑based emissions target.

Gina Bell, director of sustainability, introduced the consultants from Lotus Engineering and Michelle Kim, the city’s climate action coordinator, who said the inventory is produced every three years to track progress toward the city’s adopted 50% reduction by 2030 goal. Rachel Meyer of Lotus Engineering led the presentation and explained the inventory methodology, saying the report uses activity data (for example, kilowatt‑hours and vehicle miles traveled) and emission factors to convert activity into carbon dioxide equivalents.

Lotus reported that Debuque’s total 2025 emissions were approximately 680,236 metric tons CO2e. The inventory divides emissions into scopes: scope 1 (in‑boundary emissions) accounted for about 69% of the total, scope 2 (electricity) about 29%, and scope 3 (transboundary items such as commercial aviation and transmission losses) about 2%. Commercial and industrial buildings were the single largest sector at about 44%, followed by transportation at 29% and residential at 22%.

The consultants said several methodological updates influenced year‑to‑year comparisons: Alliant Energy provided community solar generation and a grid‑specific transmission and distribution loss rate for 2025; the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change updated the global warming potential for methane and the team separated fossil‑fuel methane from fugitive methane; and state DOT vehicle‑miles‑traveled data were used where Google Mobility VMT was unavailable for 2025. Emma, a Lotus consultant, said these inputs and Alliant’s falling emission factor helped drive a reported 17% decrease in overall emissions from 2018 to 2025 and a 9% decrease between 2022 and 2025.

On targets, Lotus described the One Planet City Challenge method and estimated that a science‑based 2030 target for Debuque would require about a 62.4% reduction from 2018 levels (equating to roughly 308,000 metric tons of CO2e in 2030). Rachel Meyer said such a target is “very ambitious,” and staff cautioned achievement depends in part on federal and state incentives and policies.

Council members pressed staff and consultants on what the city can directly control. Meyer and Kim recommended starting with municipal operations (fleet and municipal buildings), updating building‑stock inventories so the city is “shovel ready” for outside funding, pursuing building‑energy codes where feasible, and advancing visible community programs such as tree‑planting and the Energy Savers program. Bell emphasized outreach and a shorter, actionable climate plan focused on implementable steps.

Several council members endorsed pursuing achievable near‑term actions and positioning the city to pursue larger grants when state or federal incentives are available. The presentation closed with staff agreeing to bring further recommendations and a proposal for community engagement and a decision timeline to a future council meeting.

The work session portion of the meeting was informational; no formal policy change or vote on adopting a science‑based target was taken. Council directed staff to return with recommended next steps and community engagement plans.