Five years ago, the City of Charlottesville set the most ambitious climate goal in the state when it announced it would cut emissions 45 percent by 2030 and be carbon neutral by 2050. This year’s budget shows city officials are serious about meeting those goals, said Susan Kruse, executive director of Community Climate Collaborative (C3).

“I’m super thrilled, particularly with the city of Charlottesville’s budget and the level of investment they’re making in the kind of infrastructure and systems change that we’re going to need to reach our climate goal,” Kruse told Charlottesville Right Now. 

Kruse says climate-impacting budget items include money towards affordable housing and transportation access. In addition, the city included $1 million in its capital improvement budget for each of the next five years. 

“That is looking at the city’s own infrastructure and where it needs to take action in its own buildings to directly reduce emissions in our community,” Kruse explained.

Albemarle is also taking positive steps for the climate in its budget, she said. The county awarded almost $9 million to its  facilities and environmental services and its climate action funding pool is at over $400,000. 

Kruse said coal plant closures and a greater amount of renewable energy in the grid are also contributing to a reduction in emissions. 

“Now is the time when the city and county and our localities really need to invest in what is going to get us that to that next level by directly reducing emissions,” Kruse said. Localities can do that by making buildings more efficient, electrifying transportation and making sure we’re building the systems that we will need.”

Listen to the interview with C3 Executive Director Susan Kruse here.