Several northeast Ohio counties will soon have a regional climate action plan with recommendations for reducing greenhouse gas emissions that worsen the effects of climate change like extreme heat, severe storms and worsened water quality.
The draft Comprehensive Climate Action Plan was developed by the city of Cleveland and the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating agency for Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake, Lorain and Medina counties. It outlines the current state of emissions in the region, the climate impacts of not reducing those emissions and proposes strategies for reducing emissions from local industry, improving access to public transit and electric vehicle infrastructure, and using more clean energy.
"Climate action is already happening across the Cleveland Elyria metropolitan statistical area," said Tim Kovach, decarbonization strategist for Cleveland, highlighting existing climate action plans for the city, Cleveland Heights, Cuyahoga County, Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority, Oberlin and the Port of Cleveland. "That said, despite the fact that we have made significant initial progress, there are real barriers that remain if the region wants to achieve the targets outlined in the CCAP."
NOACA aims to achieve a 49% reduction greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and net zero emissions by 2050. Data from the agency's 2018 greenhouse gas inventory will serve as the baseline.
Regional collaboration is needed to meet these goals, Kovach said.
"We can't operate in silos if we want to try to achieve the targets outlined in this plan," he said. "It's better to pursue a suite of climate actions like what we've outlined in the CCAP rather than trying to address each of the individual sources of emissions in isolation as there's a lot of overlap and a lot potential synergies that we could be pursuing if we take a broader approach."
NOACA and Cleveland completed a priority climate action plan in March, outlining its emission reduction goals. The Comprehensive Climate Action Plan is open for public comment through August 31st, and will be sent to the NOACA board for approval before being submitted to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency by December.
Public comments can also be sent to noaca@mpo.noaca.org or submitted by phone at (216) 241-2414, ext. 303. Written comments can be mailed to 1299 Superior Avenue E, Cleveland, OH 44114.
Benefits of climate action planning
Emissions are expected to decrease by about 26% by 2050 without the Comprehensive Climate Action Plan, Kovach said. But that reduction jumps to more than 90% if these strategies are implemented, he said.
"The important thing is to try to move quickly, to move in a way that is smart that is effective and that builds upon the successes that we’ve had as a region already," he said. "That will allow us to achieve those targets."
Doing nothing to reduce emissions will come with a price, including lack of green industry in the region, fewer clean energy jobs and a significant economic burden Kovach said.
"Obviously that will be additional extreme heat, severe weather that takes a significant toll on the most vulnerable members of our community," Kovach said. "What we ended up finding is that if we do not, under a business-as-usual scenario, the total costs of the inaction reached about $170 billion in total by 2050, and that's roughly equivalent to economic output from the region in one year."
On the other hand, full implementation of the plan is expected to prevent as many as 420 premature deaths, 120 heart attacks and 100,000 asthma attacks each year starting in 2050, Kovach said. The region could also see improved water quality due to green infrastructure projects and a 33% reduction in household energy costs.
Multiple approaches to emissions reduction
The draft Comprehensive Climate Action Plan proposes 70 strategies for reducing emissions in the five-county region. For each strategy, the plan identifies potential cost, time frame, funding sources and the types of communities that might be able to implement them.
Separately, the team identified six major strategy with the greatest potential to reduce emissions in the region:
- Net zero Steelmaking at Cleveland-Cliffs,
- Expanding Nuclear Generation at Perry Nuclear Power Plant,
- Expanding Passenger Rail and Light-Rail Service,
- Developing Offshore Wind on Lake Erie,
- Developing a Regional Direct Air Capture (DAC) Facility, and
- Implementing a “Headwaters Forests Initiative” to reforest 10 square miles of the region’s headwaters in the Chagrin, Cuyahoga, Rocky, and Black rivers.
This allows elected officials and stake holders to easily identify which strategies be the most effective within their respective communities, Kovach said.
"What works for the city of Cleveland or Elyria will not necessarily work for Willowick or Medina or Oberlin or Bainbridge or Wellington," Kovach said.
"We need to make sure that we are identifying which measures work best for which different communities, and [give] the elected officials, public officials, and leaders of those communities the resources and information that they need to pursue the strategies that work best for them."
