Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory and Climate Action Plan

Funds to conduct a comprehensive study to determine our current greenhouse gas emissions were adopted in the FY 2023 and 2024 budgets. The results will allow us to determine our baseline and establish reduction targets.

In June 2023, we entered into a contract with Cascadia Consulting Group. The team met in late June to kickoff the project frame work, timeline, goals and the public engagement component.

A study to determine the community’s greenhouse gas baseline kicked off June 2023.

An overview was presented to County Council at the August 22, 2023 council meeting on how this project will proceed, including the public and stakeholder feedback element. The findings will then be incorporated into a subsequent climate action plan.

The final Climate Action Plan will be completed in 16 months or by October 2024. Creating an official plan will help achieve the County Council’s strategic goal of Environmental Stewardship and keep Los Alamos County on target to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions.

As the project progresses, we will share information on this webpage.

The Los Alamos Resiliency Energy & Sustainability Task Force (LARES) task force (comprising 20 citizens, seven councilors, and support from more than 14 county staff members) conducted a year-long intensive study, resulting in a final report(PDF, 28MB) presented to councilors on February 22, 2022.

The 200-page final report contained numerous recommendations to reduce the county’s carbon footprint and enhance sustainability. Two recommendations, strongly endorsed by the task force, was the need to begin with:

• A study to determine baseline greenhouse gas emissions from which the county could set reduction targets and measure progress, and A strategic climate action plan that incorporates the findings from the greenhouse gas emissions study and identifies climate mitigation strategies.
• Los Alamos County Councilors agreed and, in less than one month, authorized a budget revision to perform these services. Staff immediately began working on the procurement process, including developing the scope of work, reviewing six proposals, finalizing this agreement, and returning to the council for approval. On May 23, 2023, a services agreement between Los Alamos County and Cascadia Consulting Group was approved, and the first-ever Community Greenhouse Gas Emissions Study and Climate Action Plan kicked off on June 7.