Thurston County falling short of key climate goal, open letter warns
The Thurston County region is not on track to reach its greenhouse gas reduction targets for 2030 and 2050.
Rebecca Harvey, the county’s Climate Mitigation Senior Program Manager, shared the news with the Board of County Commissioners during a briefing earlier this month.
“We are not on target to meet our goals for greenhouse gas reduction, as is, unfortunately, most of the world,” Harvey said. “So, this is not a unique situation in Thurston County, but it is, you know, a dire situation. …”
The county along with the cities of Lacey, Olympia and Tumwater agreed in 2021 to reduce communitywide emissions 45% below 2015 levels by 2030 and 85% below 2015 levels by 2050. The targets are outlined in the Thurston Climate Mitigation Plan (TCMP), a regional framework for removing or limiting heat-trapping greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere.
Falling short of these goals calls into question how effective local efforts have been to limit climate change-causing activities.
The briefing was prompted by a June 2024 open letter signed by 11 of 13 sitting members of a community advisory group that offers perspective and feedback to staff and executive committee of the Thurston Climate Mitigation Collaborative. The collaboration oversees implementation of the climate mitigation plan.
“We are still over 40% away from our 2030 goal,” the letter reads. “This means we need to reduce emissions by an average of 7% per year to meet the goal.”
To improve the situation, the letter calls on the county and cities to “take bolder action” as well as “invest more staff and financial resources” into realizing the goals of the TCMP.
How did the letter come to be?
In April 2024, the staff team informed the advisory workgroup that county data showed greenhouse gas emissions decreased 4.1% from 2015 to 2021.
The latest TCMC greenhouse gas inventory report shows per-capita emissions decreased about 4.3% from 2015 to 2022. However, emissions were on the whole about 6.6% higher in 2022 compared to the 2015 baseline and 5.8% lower than the peak in 2019.
At that pace, the county is not on track to meet its goals.
The workgroup drafted a letter of concern in response but not all members agreed to adopt it as an official letter. Without consensus, individual members worked outside the advisory group to draft the open letter.
The members presented the open letter to the executive committee in July and committee members encouraged them to share the letter with each of the city councils and county commission.
The letter includes several requests. For one, the letter asks for more staffing at the TCMC.
To do this, they recommend the executive committee champion a dedicated local funding source and “actively lobby” state and federal officials for more money.
“We are not asking you to redirect the work of the existing staff, we are asking for more staff and resources,” the letter reads.
Additionally, the members ask for additional coordination and focus among policymakers and within each jurisdiction.
“This is an opportunity to bring together all local governments to transform our communities,” the letter reads. “Unfortunately, we still see local government policy decisions being made that are contrary to the TCMP goals.”
Members warn the county that action is needed
Harvey was joined at the briefing by Tom Crawford and Stephen Bernath, two members of the community advisory workgroup who signed onto the letter.
Crawford said the region needs to think globally and act locally. He referenced the rising global average temperature as a matter of concern.
“We’re in trouble,” Crawford said. “If we don’t take action, very strong and bold and significant action very soon, we’re going to be in deep, deep trouble.”
Under the 2015 Paris Agreement, countries of the world agreed to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions so that the long-term global average surface temperature increase can be limited to 1.5 degrees Celsius, according to the United Nations.
Some sources say the world has already surpassed or is likely to surpass that metric, Bloomberg News reported.
Bernath acknowledged that local jurisdictions have made strides in reducing emissions from buildings as well as promoted carbon absorption through trees and agriculture practices.
Still, he said the region does not have capacity to move ahead on reducing emissions from transportation.
“We want to make sure that all of this is done (in a way) that meets socio-economic differences through the community in an equitable way,” Bernath said.
Bernath offered some additional suggestions for meeting the challenge.
The TCMC should engage with other regional partners such as the Port of Olympia and Intercity Transit.
The county should fund a full-time grant manager in the Commissioner’s Office to assist Harvey.
Local jurisdictions should use a climate lens in all policy and financial decisions. This may be done by assigning a staff member in each department to be a climate liaison and by training staff and decision makers to use a climate lens.
Local funds should be set aside for state and federal grants that call for matching funds.
Nathaniel Jones, a representative from the Thurston County League of Women Voters (LWV), also took part in the briefing. He said the LWV signed onto the open letter to urge local officials to act.
“The community advisory work group and local concerned citizens are alerting you that we’re failing on this plan as a region,” Jones said.
The Black Hills Audubon Society Conservation Committee, Olympia Indivisible, South Sound Sierra Club, Restoring Earth Connection and Thurston Climate Action Team signed onto the open letter as well.
How did county officials react?
At the start of the briefing, Assistant County Manager Joshua Cummings interrupted Harvey to say Thurston County is squarely on target with its own goals and “doing great work.”
Harvey reiterated that the region is not, in fact, meeting its greenhouse gas emission goals.
Later in the meeting, Commissioner Wayne Fournier questioned the competing assertions.
Cummings said that the county is meeting its actions steps and said the county has been a leader in the region. Still, he acknowledged that the greenhouse gas emission targets are “tough goals to meet.”
“There’s a wide world out there,” Cummings said. “Thurston County doesn’t operate in a bubble, so it’s hard to pull those two things apart, but you have to have two thoughts in your mind at the same time.”
Commissioner Rachel Grant said it’s become evident that the actions laid out in the plan are not effectively moving the region toward its goals.
“I’m writing down, for me, that this is an opportunity for us to be able to say, ‘cool, we’re actually using a strategic plan,’ which is what it is, and we’re saying it’s time for us to check in with that strategic plan,” Grant said. “We know that we’re not meeting the goals, so it’s time to adjust the actions in the strategic plan.”
Based on her experience, Commissioner Carolina Mejia said she’s not seeing the public connecting with climate goals.
“I feel like we can keep assessing these goals and throwing resources at this general policy level, but if there’s no education to our community members, then we’re just going to keep making baby steps,” Mejia said.
One public effort that’s close to launching is Energize Thurston, a new program that promotes the adoption of electric appliances and heat pumps.
Starting this month, the program will offer discounts, rebates, customer support and a limited number of subsidized installations for income-qualified households, according to the TCMC website.
Harvey said the county will hold in-person workshops and staff are working on public outreach and education.
The public can sign up for a mailing list to learn more about the upcoming program at the Energize Thurston website.
This story was originally published March 3, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
