Gov. Edwards’ Climate Initiatives Task Force begins working on state climate change plan

BATON ROUGE, La. (KALB) - In the coming years, Louisiana is expected to lose coastal wetlands from sea level rise, see an increase in flooding from heavy rainfall events and more extreme heat all due to rising global temperatures.

In August, Governor Edwards signed an executive order creating the Climate Initiatives Task Force. The goal of the task force is to figure out how to reduce greenhouse gasses, while also preserving Louisiana’s economy. Right now, Louisiana is eighth in the nation in the amount of greenhouse gasses being produced, with half of that coming from the industrial sector.

The task force is divided into several committees, including a transportation committee. The transportation committee held a zoom meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 1 to discuss how to lower emissions from transportation-related sources. Alexandria International Airport manager Scott Gammel is on that committee.

“In this executive order, we established the charging vision that Louisiana can and will reduce greenhouse gas emissions to limit the impacts of climate change in Louisiana. Even just simply this charge here really offers and acknowledges that this dual reality that Louisiana deals with. That we’re extremely vulnerable to the impacts of climate change but we also have a leadership role in energy production and industry and agriculture and transportation as well,” said policy advisor Lindsay Cooper in the Zoom meeting.

The goal of the task force is to come up with a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 28 percent of 2005 levels in the next five years, 50 percent of 2005 levels by the year 2030, and reduce emissions to net-zero by 2050.

The plan is scheduled to be completed by February 2022.

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