Climate Action Plan
In 2020, Borough Council passed a Climate Action Resolution that commits the Borough to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 26% by 2025 and 80% by 2050, compared to 2005. A commission consisting of four teams and an executive committee was formed to develop a Climate Action Plan to achieve those goals. In January 2022, the Borough's first-ever Climate Action Plan (CAP) was unanimously approved by Borough Council.
The Climate Action Plan's objectives and action items are broken down into several different sectors:
- Transportation
- Commercial
- Residential
- Municipal Operations
- Solid Waste
Transportation
- Increase the adoption of electric and alternative energy vehicles in the vehicle fleet.
- Promote the adoption of electric vehicles by households and businesses to achieve 30% of the light-duty fleet by 2035 and 90% by 2050.
- Incentivize and accelerate the adoption of electric and alternative energy vehicles in commercial and industrial uses to achieve 15% of the medium and heavy-duty fleet by 2035 and 45% by 2050.
- Convert the entire municipal light-duty vehicle fleet to electric or alternative energy by 2035 and convert the remaining medium and heavy-duty municipal vehicle fleet to electric or alternative energy by 2050. (Also falls under Municipal Operations)
- Use existing incentives to complete a comprehensive fleet assessment of all municipal light, medium, and heavy-duty fleet vehicles to inform the development and implementation of a multi-year strategy, including procurement benchmarks. (Also falls under Municipal Operations)
- Convert the Carlisle Area School District bus fleet to electric/low-carbon by 2035.
- Reduce community vehicles' miles traveled (VMT) 10% by 2035 and 25% by 2050.
- Reduce energy use in residential buildings by 40% in 2050.
- Energy-efficiency retrofits for existing homes. 40% of existing residential homes participating in energy-efficiency programs by 2035 and 70% by 2050.
- Net-Zero new residential homes. Increase the percentage of new residential building areas that produce as much energy on-site as it uses to 5% by 2025, 35% by 2035, and 65% by 2050.
- Establish Energy Use Intensity (EUI) benchmark for new residential buildings.
- Residential Electrification. Reduce use of natural gas, fuel oil, or propane for space and/or water heating (60% of households in Carlisle in 2017) by switching 50% to electricity by 2035 and 80% by 2050.
- Increase the percentage of households with rooftop PV solar installations or residents who are participants in commercial solar projects to 10% by 2025, 25% by 2035, and 40% by 2050.
Resources
This section contains helpful resources and links.
- PA Construction Codes Academy Energy Resilience Resources
- Electric Vehicle Charging Station Locations
Carlisle Climate Action Plan
Climate Action Commission Updates
Climate Action Resources