Climate Action Plan

On March 6, 2007 Manitou Springs City Council unanimously passed Resolution No. 1107 to   join The Cities for  Climate Protection (CCP) Campaign.  By passing the resolution Manitou Springs pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from their local government operations and throughout the community.  To help achieve these goals Manitou Springs will undertake the CCP’s five milestones.

On December 18, 2007, the Manitou Springs City Council unanimously approved Resolution No. 3607 which set the following greenhouse gas reduction goal:

The City of Manitou Springs will strive to achieve, in both its municipal operations and throughout the larger community, a 10 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from its 2005 levels by 2010, a 30 percent reduction from its 2005 levels by 2020, and commit to ensuring that all new buildings and developments can and will be carbon neutral—generating or offsetting as much energy as they consume by 2030.

Throughout the winter of 2007-2008, Megan Day , Manitou Springs Climate Action Chair. performed  an extensive Green House Gas and Emissions Inventory using tools provided by CCP.   The Manitou Springs Green House Gas and Emissions Inventory was presented to the Manitou Springs City Council  on 20 March 2008.

Through a multi-stakeholder process, the Committee developed a Local Action Plan that describes the policies and measures that the Manitou Springs  will take to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and achieve its emissions reduction target. In addition to direct greenhouse gas reduction measures, the plan also incorporates public awareness and education efforts.  The Manitou Springs Climate Action Plan was presented to the Manitou Springs City Council and unanimously approved on 17 June 2008.

The next stage is to implement the policies and measures contained in the Climate  Action Plan. Typical policies and measures implemented by CCP participants include energy efficiency improvements and incentives, public transit improvements, and installation of renewable power applications.

The last stage is to monitor and verifying progress on the implementation of measures to reduce or avoid greenhouse gas emissions and will be  an ongoing process. Monitoring begins once measures are implemented and continues for the life of the measures, providing important feedback that can be use to improve the measures over time