Residents asked to contribute to Mankato's Climate Action Plan

MANKATO — Nearly two years after local environmentalists asked the city of Mankato to “step up its game” in fighting global warming, city officials have scheduled an open house to kick off the creation of a Climate Action Plan.

“The city of Mankato’s Climate Action Plan will be a roadmap to reduce local contributions to the causes of climate,” the city announced Monday. “Throughout this process, the city will be looking for opportunities to take action, such as decreasing emissions from buildings and transportation. The overall intended benefit is the improvement of indoor and outdoor air quality through a reduction in contributions to climate change.”

The process begins with an open house 5-7 p.m. Tuesday, March 18, at the Intergovernmental Center.

The effort is being funded with a nearly $50,000 grant through a program funded by the 2023 Minnesota Legislature to provide $3 million in grants to cities, counties and other local jurisdictions across the state to create individual action plans. The plans are about both reducing greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change and about strategies for dealing with the local impacts of the hotter weather, torrential rains, more volatile storms and other repercussions of rising global temperatures.

Creating Mankato’s plan will involve several phases starting with community engagement and ending with a final report. In between, the process will include assessing transportation, ecosystems, community resiliency and vulnerability, energy efficiency, community health and local economic factors. 

“We want your input as we work through the phases in the coming months,” stated the city’s announcement. “We are looking for involvement from residents, businesses, organizations and stakeholders who are interested in contributing to the development of the Climate Action Plan.”

Along with this month’s open house, other public engagement efforts will follow later this year. People can also share thoughts through the city’s online engagement page “Every Voice Mankato.”

The City Council agreed to pursue an action plan following a presentation by the Southcentral Minnesota Clean Energy Council in summer of 2023.

“We are asking the city to step up its game,” said Katy Wortel, of Mankato. “You are a leader in the region.”

Three other representatives of the group laid out the importance of taking steps at the local level to deal with a global problem, the benefits that can result from being proactive on the issue, and the value of systematic, measurable efforts to enact change.