“In Godoy Cruz, the perspective of climate change will be incorporated into all local public policies, cross-cutting local climate management and ensuring that municipal initiatives contribute to achieving mitigation and adaptation goals.
The ordinance was approved by the Deliberative Council in the last extraordinary session of the year.
The new regulation establishes among its objectives to achieve a carbon-neutral city by the year 2030.
Some key points include:
- Sets minimum targets for the reduction or elimination of greenhouse gas emissions.
- Encourages the use of sustainability indicators.
- Promotes the integrated management of water resources as a strategic element for territorial planning, aiming at resource preservation and efficient use.
- Incentivizes and promotes the use of renewable energy to diversify the energy matrix, both in municipal public infrastructure and in the private sector and the Godoy Cruz community, among others.
It also includes adaptation measures, such as developing meteorological models to obtain appropriate projections of atmospheric variables necessary for environmental risk management, considering the municipality’s own weather stations and those provided by the National Meteorological Service.
The ordinance increases responsiveness and implements preventive measures in the framework of comprehensive risk management against extreme weather events.
It promotes the eradication or pruning of dry trees and their replacement with specimens that do not pose a risk to the health of people and animals, among other measures.
Implementation:
To carry out the actions established by the new ordinance, municipal effectors must consider four key instruments: annual greenhouse gas inventories and reports; the ‘Local Climate Action Plan’ (P.L.A.C.) developed by the Municipality in 2018; instances of environmental education and awareness for the change of habits towards sustainable consumption patterns; and the Municipal Territorial Planning Plan.
A Municipality with a good track record:
In Godoy Cruz, from 2015 to the present, greenhouse gas emissions have been reduced by 21%. This commitment to local action has been recognized nationally and internationally, encouraging other cities to replicate good practices.
All this is thanks to the municipality’s participation in the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy, a global initiative part of the International Urban Cooperation Program for Latin America and the Caribbean (IUC-LAC), of the European Union; as well as in the Argentine Network of Municipalities Against Climate Change.
Source: Argentine Network of Municipalities Against Climate Change (RAMCC)
