As we adapt to climate change, let's also reduce it

By Steve Behnke

Juneau is spending a lot of money adapting to climate change. After four straight years of damaging Mendenhall glacial outburst floods, we're weighing long-term solutions that could cost hundreds of millions of dollars more. We need to make that investment — protecting people, homes, and businesses has to be the priority.

But there's a second responsibility that should ride along with it. Juneau didn't cause the flooding, and cutting our local emissions won't stop the glacier from melting. But the warming behind it is a global problem every community contributes to and has a responsibility to help solve.

We've actually already committed to that. The CBJ Assembly adopted a Climate Action and Implementation Plan in 2011 and a Renewable Energy Strategy in 2018, both calling for more efficiency and a shift from fossil fuels to our local hydropower for heating and transportation. But we’ve never put real money behind them. The scale of the flood response offers a chance to fix that.

My proposal: commit 5% of the amount spent on Mendenhall flood protection to implementing the climate and renewable-energy plans we already have on the books. $5 million for every $100 million spent on flood protection would be a small slice of a huge project, but enough to make a real dent in Juneau's energy future.

That money could:

– Make homes and buildings more efficient, cutting both energy bills and emissions

– Help homeowners swap oil heating for heat pumps

– Electrify transportation — charging infrastructure, EV incentives, buses, shore power for cruise ships – the works

– Green CBJ's own buildings and operations, cutting the city's costs and emissions while showing other building owners what's possible

To be clear, this isn't about taking money from flood protection. It's about recognizing that adapting to climate change and cutting the pollution causing it are part of the same job.

Five percent won't solve the climate problem. But it would allow us to do our part to make Juneau cleaner at the same time that we're making it safer.

• Steve Behnke is a co-founder and board member of Renewable Juneau, a nonprofit that helps Juneau reduce costs and carbon emissions through energy efficiency and beneficial electrification.