Hailey City awarded a $US 5,000 grant for its climate protection efforts

Hailey City (U.S.A.) has been awarded a $US 5,000 grant to help with the implementation of climate protection programs that will reduce their carbon emissions.

Hailey City was awarded the grant through the Northwest Cities for Climate Protection Initiative, a program sponsored by the US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) and ICLEI.  

The grant will not only directly help Hailey, but will also benefit Blaine County and the cities of Ketchum, Sun Valley and Bellevue, which are all partnering with Hailey in addressing climate protection and their carbon footprint.

The grant will, in part, help support a circuit rider who can gather a comprehensive inventory of all the greenhouse gas emission that result from the city’s operations.  Using special software applications, the circuit rider will calculate the city’s carbon footprint, after which efforts will then be focused on the other partnering local governments to complete their inventory and carbon footprint.

At the end of the grant, all the local governments should have a solid understanding of what activities generate the most greenhouse gas emissions and then they can begin to objectively make decisions on how best to control those emissions.

More and more cities are facing the need to mitigate climate change while already adapting to the changes brought about by climate change.  ICLEI’s Cities for Climate Protection® (CCP) Campaign is an innovative international campaign that helps local government and their communities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and their impact on the environment.   And now, the CCP Campaign is launching the Adaptation Initiative, building capacity for climate change impacts at the local level.  For more information, please visit www.iclei.org/ccp.

Hailey is one of 259 local governments in the U.S.A. that are currently Members of ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability.  For more information on ICLEI and its activities in the U.S.A., please visit www.iclei.org/usa.

Source:  ‘$5000 grant awarded to Hailey City climate protection efforts’, SunValleyOnline, 4 November 2007.