The City and County of Honolulu in recognition of Earth Day, announced the One Climate One Oʻahu Climate Action Plan 2020–25 (CAP), a science-based, community-driven strategy for Oʻahu to combat climate change and eliminate fossil fuel emissions—the root cause of global warming.
The action plan is a joint effort by the Honolulu City and County Office of Climate Change, Resiliency and Sustainability and the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Institute for Sustainability and Resiliency (ISR) and the UH Economic Research Organization (UHERO).
“Oʻahu’s first-ever CAP is an important step in furthering greenhouse gas reduction efforts. By measuring the GHG outcomes of sectors and programs, we have a better understanding of the ways in which the City and County can contribute to reducing global climate change through local actions. With a new federal administration committed to climate change policy, these actions can be complementary across levels of government,” said ISR Director Makena Coffman.
The CAP lays out a detailed list of programs, policies and actions that Oʻahu can take to reduce greenhouse gas emissions over the next five years on the path to carbon neutrality by 2045. The plan identifies 9 strategies and more than forty actions to pursue:
- Encourage density and mixed land use in strategic areas
- Enable and provide multiple modes of green transportation
- Encourage mode shift through parking efficiency
- Electrify the cityfleet and support high efficiency vehicles
- Reduce energy demand by increasing energy efficiency
- Maximize energy efficiency and renewable energy throughout city operations and assets
- Expand renewable energy planning and expedite permitting
- Promote waste prevention
- Maximize waste resource efficiency
Climate action planning is a collaborative process to establish community priorities, which involves bringing together residents, subject matter experts and other community stakeholders to collectively map out the measures and actions to decarbonize the local economy. The City’s Office of Climate Change, Sustainability and Resiliency launched the community CAP process in July 2018 and hosted a series of island-wide community meetings to inform residents about the urgency of climate action and collect their ideas and concerns to be incorporated into the action plan.
For more details on these strategies, read the full One Climate One Oʻahu Climate Action Plan on the City and County website.
This effort is an example of UH Mānoa’s goals of Building a Sustainable and Resilient Campus Environment: Within the Global Sustainability and Climate Resilience Movement (PDF), and Excellence in Research: Advancing the Research and Creative Work Enterprise (PDF) two of four goals identified in the 2015–25 Strategic Plan (PDF), updated in December 2020.
