TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — After 14 months of planning and public meetings, the City of Tucson approved the Tucson Climate and Adaptation Plan on Tuesday. The city aims to be carbon neutral from city operations by 2030 and then community wide by 2045.
Mayor Regina Romero said the plan looks at several different areas of the city, from using more sustainable building materials to solar street lights.
"We started working immediately after September 2020 with an electric vehicle readiness roadmap," she said. "We've already passed code changes so that every residential, construction, retail, commercial or any type of development now is going to be EV ready."
For Tucsonans like Bruce Plenk, the hope is that the plan gets put into action.
"The new budget starts in July," he said. "So between now and July 1st, it's a really critical time to see where mayor, council and the city manager come up with the ways to really implement the plan and in my view they are really going to need to hire some people or move people around to focus on climate change."
He said he is trying to do his part to keep Tucson green.
"Everyone should being doing their little bit," he said. "And I'm doing my little bit, for example, I have an electric car. We have solar panels on our house so we get our electricity from the sun."
Plenk said moving forward with the climate plan helps ensure a better future for Tucson.
"We got elementary kids and college kids saying 'Hey, you guys are going to be gone soon, but we're the ones going to suffer.'" he said. "So I'm excited. I want to see something happen."
Read the full plan at the city of Tucson website.
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Tina Giuliano is a reporter for KGUN 9. She is a native Arizonan and grew up in Scottsdale. Tina is passionate about storytelling and is excited to work telling Tucson's stories. Share your story ideas and important issues with Tina by emailing tina.giuliano@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
