For a moment, the City and Borough of Juneau was poised to join a national movement. Then it wasn’t.
Near the end of Monday’s CBJ Assembly meeting, Assembly member Maria Gladziszewski proposed that Mayor Ken Koelsch sign a Climate Mayor’s statement to adopt the goals set by the Paris Agreement.
The United States recently withdrew itself from the agreement, which sets goals and urges countries to keep closer track of their emissions. More than 270 mayors around the country have already signed the statement, which pledges to follow the guidelines proposed in the Paris Agreement.
The Assembly approved that motion by a 5-3 vote, but there was confusion about what exactly the motion was.
As she prefaced her motion, Gladziszewski noted that she wasn’t sure how to get the proposal onto the Assembly’s agenda, which prompted multiple Assembly members to think her motion was merely to put the proposal on the agenda for the next Assembly meeting. Koelsch, who voted against the motion to sign the agreement, proposed that the Assembly reconsider the issue at the next Assembly meeting, scheduled for July 31.
“I think it needs a discussion,” Koelsch said after the conclusion of Monday’s meeting. “I was under the understanding that we were coming up with a resolution to come back (at the next meeting) and that’s what the misunderstanding was.”
As of now, Juneau will not be on that list of cities supporting the Paris Agreement. The motion is effectively on hold until the next meeting, when the Assembly will take a vote to determine whether or not to reconsider Gladziszewski’s motion. If that vote passes, Koelsch explained, the Assembly will revote on the issue itself.
If the Assembly votes to sign the agreement, Koelsch said he will sign it. Koelsch pointed out that he would rather spend meeting time discussing more local issues instead of hot-button national issues.
“There are a number of issues on both sides, the left and the right, that we can take up if that’s the will (of the Assembly),” Koelsch said Tuesday morning. “I think we should be dealing with the challenges we have right in our city. Every day, we’re dealing with homeless issues, public safety issues and some economic issues that are pretty critical to keeping our city going.”
The issue was at the forefront of Monday’s meeting during the first half hour. Five members of the public took turns at the microphone in the Assembly Chambers and asked Koelsch to sign the statement.
One of them, Elaine Schroeder, pointed out that if the CBJ signs onto this pact, it would be the second governmental organization in Juneau to come out in support of the Paris Agreement. The Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska signed a document along with other Alaska Native nations in supporting the Paris Agreement.
In a statement earlier this month, CCTHITA President Richard Peterson spoke specifically about watching climate change affect Alaska.
“Alaska tribal governments are living with the early but significant effects of climate change,” said council President Richard Peterson in the statement. “Our traditional knowledge learned over millennia within our aboriginal lands leaves us with no doubt that immediate action to reduce the impacts of climate change is our duty as sovereign indigenous governments. As such, we will seek to participate in the Paris Agreement.”
Along with bringing people to testify Monday night, local environmental group 350 Juneau drafted a letter to the Assembly outlining its reasons for wanting Koelsch to sign the statement.
The organization, which is part of an international organization called 350.org, argued that backing out of the Paris Agreement hurts the country’s worldwide image as a leader in environmental issues, it hurts the country economically, it sets future generations up for harm and it affirms the views of deniers of climate change. Nowhere, the organization argues in its letter, is the effect of climate change more apparent than in Alaska.
The letter bears the signatures of 15 people, many of whom were in attendance Monday. Michael Tobin, a retired emergency room doctor, pointed out that many people in Juneau make their living in the field of science and some of them contribute to research about climate change. Others, Tobin pointed out, depend on fishing for their living, and the rising temperatures of water and air have harmed fish totals.
As others did, Tobin finished his time at the microphone by urging Koelsch to sign the agreement and set an example for other communities.
“The science is abundant and clear,” Tobin said, “and this is an opportunity to lead.”
• Contact reporter Alex McCarthy at alex.mccarthy@juneauempire.com.
