We need to act on climate change!
This is not a question anymore. The UN says so, NASA says so, the National Academy of Sciences says so...even meteorologists say so.
Our local communities have recognized this need to act and incorporated it into strategic and sustainability plans
Fairport Village Sustainability Plan (2010):
Goal 1: Reduce our use of non-renewable energy sources through conservation and utilize renewable energy sources when practical (p4)
1.4 Consider developing a strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Perinton Comprehensive Plan (2021)
GOAL 4 Embrace the development of local renewable energy sources and alternative energy systems within the Town. (p 82)
Fairport Comprehensive Plan (2021)
Goal 10.0: Emphasize Environmental Sustainability & Climate Resiliency (p IV14 - 15)
1. Provide environmental leadership within the Village and for regional municipalities.
4. Recognize our ‘Carbon Future’ and take necessary actions to reduce emissions.
8. Recognize and leverage the Fairport Municipal Commission’s role as providing responsible electrical power.
Monroe County Plan Forward (still in development)
The Monroe County Comprehensive Plan will address big, global concepts like sustainability, social equity, energy supply & conservation, and climate change adaptation in ways that are appropriate and unique to Monroe County.
We have clear goals we must reach to stave off the worst of climate disruption.
In 2019, NYS passed the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), setting a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 40% from 1990 levels by 2030 and by 85% or more by 2050.
In 2021, President Biden committed the US to a 50 - 52% reduction by 2030 from 1990 levels, to fulfill the requirements of the 2015 Paris Accords.
In 2024, Monroe County released Phase 2 of its Climate Action Plan, setting a goal of an 80% reduction of fossil fuel emissions from 2019 levels by 2050.
We know that fossil fuel use in buildings and vehicles are our biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions in Fairport and Perinton:
According to the NYS Scoping Plan, 60% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the state come from two sources: transportation (primarily gasoline use) and buildings (primarily the use of natural gas for space heating). However....
Monroe County’s recent Greenhouse Gas Inventory, described in Phase 2 of the county's Climate Action Plan, finds that 80% of emissions come from transportation (gasoline) and “energy use” which is essentially the “buildings” category used by NYS (that is, natural gas). This is higher than the NYS total because Monroe County is more urban than the state as a whole, so agriculture makes up less of our emissions.
All of this means that locally, our strategies for doing our part to reduce emissions require us to (1) conserve energy in our homes and in our travel, (2) convert to electricity for all of our energy sources, and (3) expand and continue to clean up the electrical grid with renewable energy (that is, solar and wind)
These are the same strategies described in the Genesee Finger Lakes Climate Action Strategy, designed by a working group convened by the Climate Solutions Accelerator. This plan lists the following strategic priorities: action that addresses 1) reducing vehicle miles traveled (VMT) 2) energy efficiency, 3) building electrification, 6) the electrical grid (other priority strategies are more specific to rural communities in the region, such as soil health and local food systems).
So how do we get to "40 by 30" in Fairport and Perinton? Our back-of-the-envelope calculations tell us that by 2030, we need about 8160 additional electric vehicles replacing gas vehicles and 3000 additional homes converted to electric heat pumps. The table below provides details about how we calculated these numbers.
It's ambitious, but it can be done! And it will be a lot easier if we have help from our local leaders.
6. It will cost money to make these changes. But doing nothing is actually more expensive.
The costs of our current emissions fall into two categories:
the costs associated with unchecked climate change, such as
increasing levels of storm and flooding damage to homes and infrastructure,
loss of crops due to severe weather conditions,
Health costs due to high levels of heat
the health benefits of ending fossil fuel (and wood) combustion, such as:
reductions in the rates of asthma, cardiovascular disease, and cancer due to poor air quality
increase in overall healthfulness associated with the use of more active modes of transportation.
The NYS scoping plan summarized these costs for New York State when completing a cost-benefit analysis of three different climate action scenarios. The graph below, from chapter 10 of the plan, shows this analysis for the period 2020 - 2050 — the implementation costs of each scenario is on the left and the benefit value is on the right. The benefit value can be considered the cost of inaction, and as the graph illustrates, this cost is at least $400 billion (in current value) over the period.
(For more information, you can also review the NYS Climate Assessment - there is a detailed economic analysis forthcoming, though the final date is uncertain.)
According to the US Census bureau, the current population of NYS is 20,201,249, while the current population of the Town of Perinton (which includes the Village of Fairport) is 47,479, equaling 0.235% of the NYS population. Thus, Perinton’s “share” of the statewide cost of inaction is $940,120,080 from 2020 - 2050. Spread out over the 31 year time frame, that’s $30,326,454 — $638.73 per person — every year. For comparison, this is about 10% more than the Town of Perinton budget for 2024-25, which was a bit less than $27,000,000
How will we experience these costs? As taxpayers, we’ll have to cover repairs caused by damage to infrastructure, the increased need for public safety during severe weather events, and the increased costs of public insurance programs; as consumers, we’ll likely see our property insurance and food costs rise; as individuals, we may see increases in the costs of health care for ourselves and our family members.
The reality is that we are already paying some of the costs of inaction, of course, and we will even if we commit to climate action. That’s because, despite more than 30 years of dire warnings from scientists, we have done very little to reduce our planet-warming emissions. We can be angry at the previous generation for not acting in the face of these warnings and leaving us with the bill; one response to that is to feel powerless to take responsibility for the ballooning problem now. But every extra ton of carbon dioxide we release into the atmosphere now sets up our children, and our children’s children, to continue paying these costs many times over. Assertively moving to combat climate change now will start paying off immediately in health benefits, and will buy us time to adjust to the new climate system — instead of watching it continue to veer wildly as we continue to change the atmosphere.
Perinton is a community that cares deeply about its children. If we look back at the graph from the scoping document, we can see that investing in stopping climate change will require as much as $295 billion from 2020-2050. Perinton’s share of that cost is $693,250,000, or about $22.4 million per year. For comparison, that amount is equivalent to about 14% of the nearly $160 million Fairport Central School District Budget. Every May, thousands of voters — even those without children — vote in support of the FCSD budget. In fact, in May of 2021, the district saw the highest voter turnout in years, at the height of mid-pandemic school controversies over masking and virtual learning. Voters at that time approved the budget 75.3% to 24.7%, while a proposition establishing a capital technology reserve fund passed 86.8% to 13.4%! Local voters approve our school taxes every year because they are understood to be an investment in the future. We think that the good and generous people of Perinton will see the up front costs of converting to clean energy in the same vein.