Knoxville leaders have unveiled new environmental goals that seek to cut city greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030 and 80% by 2050.

Mayor Madeline Rogero announced the goals last month as a way for future mayors and city councils to continue giving back to the city.

“With steady leadership, the city can make smart, fiscally responsible investments and operational innovations that achieves significant emission reductions while still maintaining high quality services,” she said.

The new goals come on the heels of the city’s successful environmental challenge posed by former Mayor Bill Haslam, who challenged the city and community to cut greenhouse gas emissions 20% by 2020 relative to 2005 data.

The city’s end of that original bargain will be met sometime in July when the last of the LED streetlights are installed. The $17.5 million project is expected to save the city some $2 million a year on energy and maintenance costs.

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Low fruit and new technology

Office of Sustainability Director Erin Gill said the city goals for 2030 will be met by changes in how the city’s fleet and city transit is constructed (think, more electric cars) and other low-hanging fruit that wasn’t possible or financially viable five to 10 years ago, like replacing every light in city buildings with LED bulbs.

Other technologies and cost savings that will help will be developed in coming years, but are currently unknown, she said.

“They are bold and they are ambitious,” Gill said earlier this week. “I’d say when we were planning the 2020 goals in 2008 we felt the same way … that (was) a big number and now we’re here. So, setting that vision and challenging yourself as a community to stretch and be bold is an important first step.”

The 2050 goals, she said, will require a community-wide effort like partnering with TVA, which continues to improve its efficiency.

The new goals are only proposals and must be approved by City Council. Even then, it would have to be carried out by future mayors and councils, and there’s no penalty for not succeeding.

Rogero’s position fuels Knoxville’s recognition

Rogero’s position as co-chair of Climate Mayors, a bipartisan coalition of U.S. mayors working to improve communities and accelerate climate progress, has brought Knoxville national recognition, Gill said. She serves on the leadership committee with with mayors from Los Angeles, Houston and Boston.

Rogero will attend the 2019 Climate Mayors Summit in Honolulu, Hawaii, on June 27.

She said the new goals are about the future when she announced them at the May 21 council meeting.

“By setting our compass on a drastically lower-carbon future, we can unlock a continued spirit of innovation, collaboration and leadership to ensure a more sustainable and equitable future,” she said.

Specifically, she said the 2030 goals are “ambitious” and the 2050 goals are “bold.”

Little help from feds

President Donald Trump has rolled back environmental protections and pulled the U.S. out of the Obama-era Paris climate accord and, according to a New York Times story last month, parts of the federal government will no longer report on the future effects of global warming.

Losing assistance from the federal government isn’t ideal, Gill said, but that’s what makes groups like Climate Mayors so important.

“Call me an optimist, (but) I think we’ll make forward progress no matter what the federal government does,” she said. “That being said, their lack of acknowledgement and their intentional efforts to shift the U.S. away from the trajectory it’s been on is not going to help us get their faster.

“Local communities are going to have to face this one way or the other,” she continued. “We’re not going to let (the federal government) stop us. Because at the end of the day it’s our citizens dealing with higher cooling bills and more increased flooding like we saw in February.”