Reducing greenhouse gas emissions through the use of clean fuels, public transit, cycling, alternative energy, technology enhancements, and higher efficiency vehicles and facilities has positive impacts on community health.

Lane County is has completed the first phase of a three-phased approach to the development of the Climate Action Plan by developing the Internal Operations Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory. Staff completed the Community Greenhouse Gas Inventory (see below) and are now working on developing an outreach strategy for gathering public input for mitigation actions.

County-wide Greenhouse Gas Inventory

Lane County has just completed a draft of its first county-wide greenhouse gas inventory. Some of the high-level findings include:

• During 2019, Lane County’s local emissions totaled over 4.2 million Metric Tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MT CO2e). The largest sectors were transportation (primarily diesel and gasoline combustion, 66% of local total) and energy use by buildings (natural gas and electricity use, 21%). Smaller local sources of emissions included agricultural animal emissions (5%), refrigerant loss and industrial processes (4%), and waste disposal (4%).
• Imported emissions from household consumption in Lane County and production of fuel and energy sold in Lane County totaled over 3.6 million MT CO2e and include emissions from upstream fuel production (34%), production of goods (31%), food (29%), and air travel (6%).
• Forest growth and purchased carbon offsets sequestered over 3.5 million MT CO2e.

Click here for to read the full draft report.

Climate Action Plan Survey

Thank you to the more than 900 people who took our priorities survey! Lane County is creating a Climate Action Plan (CAP) to better understand how the County and its residents can help prepare for and address climate change. The results of the priorities survey will help us create the scope of the project and how we will communicate with Lane County residents.

Key Takeaways
Respondents wanted to learn about the impacts of climate change in Lane County and the steps the County is taking through digital resources, such as a website, email newsletter, and social media, and provide feedback through online surveys.

Residents of Lane County prioritized the following efforts for climate action:
1. Economic Development for Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries
2. Stuff We Buy and Use
3. Buildings and Energy
4. Transportation
5. Emergency Response and Public Health

Please continue to check this webpage for updates and opportunities to get involved.