 Okay We're gonna get the show started so to speak first of all I want to welcome everyone here today And thank you for for being here for our first public input session around San Antonio's climate action and adaptation plan So thank you. My name is Chris Uxter. I'm the chief operating officer for CPS energy I'm excited to be here It's a great turnout, you know, the weather was whether it's not great, but It's great to see all the folks in the audience. I think we even have an overflow room in the back there So it just shows the importance of this topic. So again, thank you for being here and participating in this event We do have this will be brought broadcast live Through now cast SA and that will be available for folks that aren't here So if you have friends or family that are interested in this and want to see it It's it's available through now cast SA We're also streaming live tweets So please feel free to join, you know, the social media on this topic If you want to see it and we're going to catch your tweets as they come up over there on the screen on the left If you want to see your tweet come up there on your comment or your question Make sure you use hashtag SA climate ready and if you use that it should show up there And again, we'll integrate it into the conversation today. So With that, let me let's get things let's get things started And I I'm very honored to to introduce as our our speaker starting speaker mayor Ron Nirenberg The mayor is Very much a leader in environment on environmental issues One of the first actions he took when he came to office was a resolution to support the The Paris climate accord so So it shows where his heart is and the importance of this issue for our community He is he is a strong advocate on a number of different things from air quality to smart smart city planning to water issues to You know overall sustainability So we are very lucky to have the mayor leading our city and leading this effort And so with that, uh, let me let me bring the mayor online. Good afternoon. Thank you all for being here today. Um I can't begin to tell you how excited I am to be here. This was a long time coming For all of us and I do appreciate the time and attention and the advocacy from so many people That are in this room It is a pleasure to be with you all today As we take this monumental step forward to make san antonio a climate ready community and preserve what we love about our city We're here today because we know that climate change is real imagine that We know that in order for san antonio to thrive to be the kind of city that we can be proud of And that takes care of the basics, but also plans for the future. We have to address this challenge head on City is ready to compete today And in the future will need to find a way to balance economic growth And development with sustainability and with innovation Climate change is a global issue But the impacts are felt at the local level when our streets flood our air quality causes children with asthma to miss school Things like water security and green split green space influence whether businesses want to look relocate here And invest in our city and even causes things like ratings agencies to pick up their their phone It affects every aspect of every aspect of our lives from quality of life to our pocket books This issue is also critically important as our most vulnerable populations Seniors low-income residents and the very young are the most susceptible to climate impacts such as extreme heat and weather events as well as housing health and economic impacts Some of you may remember that my first order of business as mayor Was to work with the city council to pass a resolution in support of the paris climate agreement to be clear That was the recognition by hundreds of mayors all across the world Two years prior that in order for us to make action on climate. It's got to happen at the local level That's where the real work is done And so with a stroke of a pen we joined 385 cities from across the country who vowed To continue local initiatives to reduce air pollution and make their communities safer As a climate mayor I'm committed to working with the community and all of the stakeholders to continue addressing the importance of climate action in the absence of national leadership The plan we're launching today grew out of the essay tomorrow sustainability plan and will provide an essential and implementable long term plan to address our community's Contribution to climate change As well as to ensure that our businesses our citizens our institutions and our local government agencies are prepared For the climate impacts we are experiencing now and those that are projected into the future I'd personally like to thank paula gold williams for stepping up to that at the resolution signing ceremony With a commitment to funding for the very development of this plan I'd also like to thank dr. Amy for putting together a great team that will work with our office's sustainability To ensure that this plan and the process helps us not only meet our future climate change goals But does so with balance with equity and with inclusiveness at its core So let me close again by saying i'm truly excited to be here. I'm excited that this theater is full I'm excited that we've heard so many people step up and want to be proud of the process We're going to need you every step of the way and I know that san antonio will be known As a city that is thinking forward that is doing what it can to prepare itself for the future So thank you all very much before we move on to our next speaker I do want to make everyone aware that there are spanish translation services available And I think if you if you're interested in that service, just go up to the ab Now my spanish is not that great. Can someone say spanish? That's good. Thank you john. Gracias Our next speaker i'd like to introduce is councilwoman anna sandoval She is a strong strong advocate for environmental stewardship She brings a lot of experience and insight to the council She will make sure that we think broadly around this issue and we're very fortunate to have her She currently serves as the chair of the community health and equity committee Which will look at the city's resiliency climate preparedness and Sorry public health and air quality So with that, let me let me ask councilwoman anna sandoval to join us Good afternoon everyone. How are you doing today? Good. It's great to see some familiar faces and some new faces as well So i have to tell you uh standing here today and celebrating this event with you with people from my hometown Is uh kind of like a dream come true for me When I was in high school, I decided I wanted to be an engineer and I was going to save the world and do something with cold fusion Uh it didn't didn't turn out quite that way. I think chris yuster got a lot closer to that than than I did um And I I ended up setting uh doing graduate studies in in atmospheric science specifically around climate change forcing agents like black soot. That's what I focused on and uh So I was uh stuck in the computer lab for a number of years of my life And then I worked in the san francisco bay area several years Helping other communities begin to develop their climate action plans particularly what I helped them with Was getting uh the data that they needed to start the action because you can't measure progress If you don't have something to start with right so they needed their utility data Vehicular emissions data. So I worked together on a on a multi agency portal and um An initiative where we would provide them that data In the meantime, I would come and visit san Antonio about three or four times a year because this is where I'm from and this is where my parents are and uh, I I longed for the day that that would be happening here and I saw the city growing and the expressways expanding Uh lanes and lanes and lanes wider wider and I thought when will this happen here? and I am Just absolutely thrilled uh with mayor nuremberg's leadership in having assigned the climate accord the The day that we all that the new council came on board. So I'd just like to give him a round of applause So I'm also going to say what a thrill it is to be working on a project that's also connected to public health So after I did my time in the bay area working on climate issues I spent two years at harvard studying a public health specifically environmental epidemiology in other words a spread of disease That's associated with environmental risk factors such as ozone levels or a heat extreme heat exposure a number of other things like that and The truth is that's something that when I was in high school or in that computer lab I was not thinking about up until I I worked with people in environmental justice communities in the bay area and this is uh This plan this planning process that we're embarking on it's going to be an 18 month process It is such an opportunity for us To bring together perspectives from all over the spectrum of our city all over the different economic spectrum the Spectra the different ethnic spectra income spectra and and the different kinds of industries that we have here as well to make a more To make a better life for everyone here in san Antonio because ultimately when we're talking about protecting our climate We're talking about actions that will improve our quality of life That is It's not it's not I don't see it as regulatory burden I see it as something if we find the right solutions They are solutions that are going to improve our quality of life and protect public health I just came from a city council meeting that started at nine this morning And it's still going right now um, they're on they're on zoning and One thing I can tell you that that we The that we talked about today is the important of having different perspectives at the table Because if you don't your solution will never be sustainable Uh, I think your solution is going to be a lot stronger If you bring different perspectives and different walks of life to to build So I am looking forward to that civic engagement process that we're going to have With this with this plan. I think it's going to be one of the most robust that we have seen in this community and uh When I was asked well Anna, what do you want to see in the civic engagement process? I said, you know when I go out there in the public and I talk to people about the best public engagement experience they've had they always tell me about SA 2020 and they They kind of think back to it with uh with nostalgia practically about remember that remember that process And so I think there were some good elements of that process And I think there are still better elements that we can have So what I've done is I've asked uh the team working on this to give us a briefing on their civic engagement process next week At my committee meeting, uh, which is tuesday at 10 a.m. You're all invited to be there at city hall um, and what I What I think is truly important is not just to have a good civic engagement process But to let you know what's coming as a civic engagement process because I as a decision maker I'm going to own that too Not just the decisions themselves, but how public input was incorporated into it because I think Again, the more stakeholders you have at the table and it's a messy process. Don't get me wrong. I It drags things out. It sure does But it makes for a stronger process in the end and I know this from experience because I worked eight years at a regulatory agency And if we did not talk to those who were going to be regulated We didn't know what impacts our regulations were going to have Whether or not we wanted to the the point is they're the ones that had the information and they had perspectives we didn't have so um with that said I Again, I'm just thrilled that we're kicking off this project to again to tell you it is Like a dream come true for me to see this happen in san Antonio. I hope that I am here in 18 months or two years to see the finish of this project and And I'm really excited about what it's going to do for our public health because every bit of greenhouse gas Emissions that we reduce we're also reducing the associated pollutants with that and I know I may be talking jargon for some people But that means ozone that means other things that affect our vulnerable communities people that have a hard time breathing Uh people that whose lungs may just be developing like children And older people whose lung function is deteriorating because that's what happens to all of us With age and we need to protect that population Um, so thank you very much for being here and I look forward to working with all of you in in this process. Thank you Thank you. Thank you councilwoman Uh, so I'm especially excited to introduce the next speaker. It's my boss President CEO Paula gold williams Paula in her short tenure at cps energy a ceo has really Transformed the company in terms of establishing a people first culture And what that means is caring about our customers caring about our community Caring about our employees and really part of all of this is an embodiment of that. So, um, I'm especially proud to uh to introduce her Also, she was really the uh the driving force for this climate action plan from a funding standpoint for cps energy So I really appreciate her support in all of this. So please help me welcome Paula gold Thank you. Um I am so excited to see everyone here our goal Uh as a team as a as a asset of the city um is to serve and to listen And um when I when I heard we were going to have an event I didn't realize we were going to get this much of a support and interest And I even know that we have overflow, which is great Um cps energy recently held a energy a future of energy symposium I say recently earlier this spring. We will hold them every year Because we believe that it's important for us to have more and more dialogue about how energy will shape and support communities I I tell this little story that a friend of mine came to the meeting And uh, it was an afternoon meeting from lunch until About five o'clock and he said paula. There's no way that people can would sit and listen to energy Um for a whole hour Um, I told him long in reality, we're we're an organization that is 24 7 365 But I think the real key is when you're talking about energy and climate I think we found the right recipe to have dialogue So I want to thank all of you for coming out and letting us spend a little time with you and we look forward to getting your input Um, in addition to thanking you, I want to thank our chair of our citizens advisory committee, Alva Rodriguez Right there in the second row. Thank you, sir Um, we we get a lot of input we get input from we have an environmental stakeholders group. We have our uh connections to the council and we have our own cac And uh, this is a great way for us to get participation here. We just want to hear everything that people have to say um Cps energy in its essence We celebrated 75 years of being owned by the community But in reality, we've been around for 157 years And we when we started this city only had 8 000 people And now here we are 1.4 million people and expected to grow another million people Over the next 20 plus years So it's important and we recognize that our place is to be supportive and help shape the community the way Our customers our citizens want it to be shaped So we want to hear from you We have been working on our ways to reduce socks knocks and carbons Substantially, I would say over the last 10 years and we've made progress We've introduced over 1500 more megawatts of renewable energy wind and solar But there is much much more to do We believe that we can leverage our assets But make a path to the future. We believe that renewables is key We believe that energy storage is coming electrification will support it But we want to do that with you and we want to be partners with you in making that change Thank you today for coming I am excited about it. We will have more events after this But this is the beginning. There's something really special. So thank you Thank you Paula So our next speaker is is our newest face to san Antonio Dr. Taylor Amy He comes to us from Tennessee where he was vice chancellor of research and development There at that at their university and he Is really leading one of our most important institutions here in san Antonio And so we're very excited to have him here backstage. He said he was excited about potentially calling a snow day tomorrow. So So I don't know if that's going to play out, but uh, let's welcome, uh, dr. Amy Chris, thanks. You weren't supposed to tell everybody that Actually, I can't tell you I grew up in new england and Snow days were these very special days where you could not go to school obviously and run around and build snow forts and have snowball fights and and just come in and drink hot chocolate and have a red nose and Then get a cold and and all that but they were very special and um, they were special even when I became an adult and worked at universities and My presidents for the universities that I worked at would call snow days. They were always just as fun as when I was 12 or 6 So I have to admit I do have this, um, this Desire to do that and if we do delay school tomorrow, it's just because I'm realizing a fantasy of mine. So don't tell anybody Um, I'd like to start by first talking about the fact that the world is small And that's important because we need to be connected as we work through all of these things related to climate change and adaption and prevention and resilience all the things that go with that but Um, everybody that's been up here speaking with you today I've developed a I've discovered or developed a connection that suggests that the world is small so Mayor and I obviously think pretty similarly about almost everything and it's been a wonderful delight to have Him as a colleague and to work on the things that we're working on together, but We also have this uh, this thing that we don't talk about too much, but it's pretty important to us. We're both Red Sox fans. That's that's very important Um, uh, I've I've had the pleasure of meeting Councilwoman Anna Sandoval once before and then again tonight and I had a chance to Read her bio. It's immensely impressive and What delights me and is that? In all of her time and all of the things that she's done in her pursuit of education She was an undergrad chemical engineer at MIT and then she got her Um, ph sorry masters in civil and environmental engineering at stanford, which is one of the best programs in the country and I'm a civil and environmental engineer and we just agreed that we're going to get together For coffee and talk about civil and environmental things. So that's that's exciting for me I know it sounds strange, but but civil engineering rocks and environmental engineering really rocks I'm going to speak to that in a second. Um And the president of cps our wonderful president of cps Paula Gold Williams She and I have developed a connection separate from our love of this topic and wanting to do something about it in And that we both have a deep connection to our former energy secretary Ernie moniz who's advising cps and When I was doing some of my old jobs He was very influential in some of the things that I had a chance to work on Related to renewable energy and the like and last but not least Our keynote speaker for today dr. Catherine. Hey ho In the world is very small category I've known her for 10 years and uh, she and I were colleagues together at texas tech and we worked together on many things around advancing Climate action on our campus and in west texas and we we both worked with other colleagues and colleagues at Oklahoma to establish the south central climate science center a very large Department of interior regional center that was that was working with the states and tribal nations around climate change so So who would have thought that I'd be able to stand up here and tell the story about each of my Co-panelists it's it's kind of special. Um, I come to this world as an environmental scientist and engineer Having spent much of my life working on things related to climate change and You know sustainable cities and uh, sustainable transportation and sustainable energy use and sustainable water use and And all of the institutions I worked at my faculty colleagues were deeply involved in all of the efforts the global efforts on the intergovernmental panel on climate change and the various studies that came out from that and working locally with us with municipal state and regional government around things related to carbon trading and and developing economies around sustainable applications of technology to to Address climate change. So all of my institutions have been very devoted to this All of my work as a scientist has been devoted to this. I spent 11 years on the epa science advisory board Up until about 2015 where a lot of the work that we did was related directly to How the epa is one of our governmental agencies Supported the united states and all of its efforts around Preparing for climate change preventing climate change Preparing for resiliency all of those efforts that epa was involved in at the time and and a lot of that was tied to President obama and his administration. It was a very impactful time and I loved my time and my ability and my Opportunity to give back to the country and our nation about about this subject So having a conversation again about this here in this city brings back many fond memories of that and and I say that because I've fallen deeply in love with this city and all that it offers we We're coming together in many ways around smart cities sustainable cities around our being a very wonderful multicultural place And an important place for our country and how we stand up as a nation state I'm gonna I'm gonna call san Antonio this little nation state just because it works for me But as a nation state, I think we have a chance to lead nationally Around what we do around climate change and how we how we dive in with this and As we lead in many things that we do here the world will follow us and that I can't tell you How important it is that we as a city take this leadership position and what what speaks to me about this is the following And I'm a keen fan of partnerships, but this whole effort around doing this plan for the city Is tied to this very interesting public-private partnership that involves This lovely major city a large public university And a large municipally owned utility company. I think that makes us unique here in the united states and maybe globally So what a wonderful thing to to advance this cause around around around climate Once completed We will be the largest city in texas to have a climate action and adaption plan I think this is also an excellent example of this thing I call collision and the creation of new areas of discovery and And science or policy. It's the collision of different disciplines and And for us at utsa this this opportunity to do more of these collisions and to Take our our wonderful faculty who are For better or for worse in silos sometimes and bringing them out of their silos to collide in the real world Is is a way that we create new Places for discovery and the fact that on this project that CPS is so wonderfully funded. It's going to involve Seven faculty from four colleges plus our office of sustainability now. That's that's a collision in my mind a good collision So I celebrate that This project is being supported from a 500 000 award from cps to support the project And This plan is actually you may know this but one of five new research initiatives at utsa all being funded by cps So we're very fortunate to have cps in the city as our partner and so I think that this effort will position san Antonio to be an exemplar for the globe and How we do climate here is how the globe needs to do climate and people will be watching and so we look forward to The outcomes of this and and how we celebrate the effort and how people pay attention to it So with that I'd like to say thank you. Thanks for being here. Thanks for your passion I love a packed roman. I can tell you're all very keen about this subject. So let's have some good discussions and thank you for being here Okay, next i'm going to introduce uh, dug melnik the city of san antonio's first chief sustainability officer And he's going to talk about the the why and how of our climate action adaptation plan. So please Welcome dug melnik. Good afternoon See if you can pull up. I just want to say thank you so much for braving the wind We were expecting to have Even more but we're afraid people Events were canceling left and right. So I don't quite understand but um, uh, I'm really Really grateful for you for you to be here. I'm really excited to to work with you all and our partners on developing this climate plan It is I think a monumental moment for San Antonio and you know the question is why you know, why are we doing this and and the science has been determined Climate change is occurring. There's climate consensus out there regarding the academic and scientific communities Um, I'm not going to talk about the science because in a little bit I get to introduce somebody who is basically talk circles around me and others around climate science But what I'm going to focus on is you know, really, um What it means for san antonio. Okay, um, so basically, uh, you know, it's not about just climate climate change is a big Scary phrase. It's got lots of connotations with it But I think what we want to do is really talk about this as far as what it means to To to our community to our lives and as part of the sx moral sustainability plan We, uh, undertook a climate vulnerability Analysis and so we did identify Some issues we we are at risk for wildfires Which we're seeing now unbelievably in california. I have that risk Extreme heat events are, uh, you know, envisioned in our future Worse than we experience it now vector-borne diseases will increase This is we all remember the tornado event that that came through, um, san antonio and major impacts are projected regarding that Flooding we're all very familiar with flooding and this is an image that we, um Of an analysis that we did as part of the sustainability plan looking at social vulnerability and socially Vulnerable populations and basically the the dark of the red means there's a higher concentration of Low-income residents seniors and the very young and so you have to think well, what do these impacts mean for those? those residents increased energy costs increased challenges getting to and from work or Or services. Um, so we really need to consider that as far as as we move forward And so, you know, why a climate plan and I think considering All those vulnerabilities What does it mean for us and our community and our lives? Think about extreme heat waves, you know, we all they would like going after uh, C. Glovia going to a ice house and getting some beers and refreshments Are we going to want to do that as as often? What's going to happen to the monarch butterfly migration? Extreme flooding again extreme heats, um, you know, are we going to be able to enjoy Our our green waves and as much as we do Everybody loves fiesta, you know Suppose it's 110 degrees. No, it's not that anything i'm saying is If it's extremely hot 110 degrees during fiesta, are we going to want to I'm sure we'll still go out never mind Um, the military mission, um, you know military city usa What does climate change mean for the military and their presence in san antonio? The missions You know, what what does that mean as far as impacting those really important sites and for me the most important thing Though of all of that is these two folks. It's my my son and my daughter and I wonder You know, I look at them and I mean, what's that future? Look like for them and and what can we do to try to improve it? And that's really what this is about. Just don't take my word for it. There's lots of organizations national and international that have Looked at climate change and come out with positions on it um The military has um military directives that that have looked at it acknowledged that climate change is a national security issue Moody's just came out with a a report that basically Stated that's climate shocks are part of their equation for looking at bond ratings American medical medical association the american public health association have Basically said yes climate change is a public health issue us national climate assessment has a whole section on how Our infrastructure is at risk whether it's our transportation system electric grid Water and sewer systems and finally and perhaps most surprising is unesco has a report that looks at how Climate change is a potential threat to world heritage areas. So this hits on everything that's important to our community And you know, the question is is this something that's important enough for us to address? So a little bit of a background as far as how we got here um I'm sure climate has sort of been talked about In the corners of rooms and back alleys for much longer than this, but um, August 11 2016 city council adopted the essay tomorrow sustainability plan That wasn't a climate plan, but it had climate elements. We we had a greenhouse gas inventory We did a climate vulnerability assessment. We did a climate trends analysis and following that it really led to a lot of council discussion around um Why don't we do a climate plan and that really um sort of came to a head June 22nd of this year when uh, mayor narenberg on his first day at council with the new um The new council passed a resolution in support of the the paris um Climate agreement, which was really a monumental step and really gave us some strong policy direction to begin working on this uh, the next week uh at the resolution signing ceremony Paul abled williams and cps energy committed funding um and And funding to utsa to help develop this plan So I really want to thank them for for taking that step And then the city is a part of our budget process approved a new climate manager position from my office And we're currently we're just last week council approved a interagency agreement between the three parties outlining The scope of work and the specific roles and here we are december 7 So it's important to note that We've already been doing climate things. You know, this isn't something necessarily new We just haven't looked at it through that lens. There's been a tremendous amount of work done around energy efficiency um, improving our tree canopy promoting renewable energy Um water conservation diversification emergency preparedness So it's not like we're starting from scratch and so key to this plan is really taking a look at all those existing programs And policies that are on the books and start looking at the climate Implications and starting to knit those together into a comprehensive climate plan That is that is going to have specific targets and objectives that we track and report on on a regular basis So what are the roles? That that that are involved in this process. So the city of san Antonio is sort of the lead This is a a city plan that is going to be presented to council For consideration of approval at the end of the process UTSA is basically the the lead Investigator on developing the plan and implementing the scope of work CPS isn't just the money But they're also a core member big investment into this planning process and finally perhaps the most important is all of you It's the community stakeholders And it's our job to make sure that we provide you with as much opportunity to engage in the process as possible And and I hope that you take that That the opportunity Seriously and I'm sure you'll let us know when So what is a climate action plan? It's basically a long-term plan That looks at climate related impacts It has strategies to mitigate those those impacts through Basically greenhouse gas emissions reductions And adapt to those impacts. And so in a nutshell, there's a couple components The climate action planning process We conduct an inventory of our greenhouse gas emissions across sectors You set a target you develop the plan you implement policies and programs You monitor your track track track progress and then you repeat In terms of the adaptation side of it We'll take a look at climate projections What you know, what does the future hold in terms of extreme weather precipitation extreme heat? We assess our vulnerabilities across sectors across the community Develop a series of scenario plans. What those what are those? Those vulnerabilities and those impacts look like in the future and how are we going to respond Develop the specific strategies implement and monitor now historically most cities if you look back to Where they started with climate planning. It was mostly just climate action planning. That was let's reduce our emissions When we saw some major events such as a super storm sandy hurricane Katrina and others cities began mobilizing around climate adaptation Where we are right now is cities are really saying let's do these both at the same time And so that's basically our so a little more specifics the the climate action plan includes a greenhouse gas inventory update It's an update because we have a 2014 baseline already That's for municipal operations in the community sector, but we'll be undertaking a 2016 update We will be looking at future greenhouse gas scenarios and that means this basically means well What's what's the business's usual scenario? If we don't do anything and we take into consideration consideration growth and economic activity and population What is that your trajectory look like and then basically developing another scenario based upon a target What is a paris compliant pathway look like then we develop strategies across sectors? So we'll have strategies for transportation energy sector buildings solid waste water and natural resources um Develop that pathway which is basically going to knit together the strategies to get to what our objective is and perhaps most important is co-benefit and cost-benefit analysis Basically this is how we can sell this you have this this climate plan isn't just a plan for the sake of climate There's other benefits to doing this and so we want to capture those and then also be able to Put a cost to it if it's cost x To implement we want to be able to quantify The benefits as much as possible in terms of fiscal terms The other thing we really want to do is see if we can figure out a methodology for for for cost avoidance What happens if we don't do this in the future based upon climate projections and climate trends What are we putting ourselves at risk in terms of adaptation? We'll undertake climate projections again undertake that vulnerability assessment develop those strategies and go through a similar process in terms of evaluating the cost benefit We have two frameworks associated with the plan. We've heard a lot about smart cities. And so we've asked UTSA to come up with a framework, you know, how can we best use technology? technology to help implement our strategies are there technologies around energy efficiency and buildings Is there technology that can help us with engagement? We want to you know, if we want to be a smart city How can that help inform this climate plan? And then equity is huge And then there's a lot of conversation around around fantastic in terms of climate equity you know what we're really looking at is is How do we consider that throughout the entire process? So from the engagement plan to make sure that we're giving everybody an opportunity to participate in an equitable matter So how we evaluate strategies if we implement Come up with strategies To potentially implement. What are the unintended consequences? How is this going to impact all populations before we say that's what we're going to do? And then this is really the most important part is public engagement making sure everybody's involved Key to it is developing something called feedback loops, which is a real geeky planning term It's just throughout the planning process Where are those points that the community needs to provide input? And then in the next meeting present back what we heard we want to make sure that we're we're considering input and We're also be having a sort of an equity check halfway through the process Taking a step back and looking at how we what we've been doing in terms of engagement and in terms of consideration for those strategies And then tons of methods and I won't go through these but the key is there's lots of Of opportunities we need to go to you We need to provide you with the tools to provide us with feedback and one One instance is a very simple tool called meetings in a box We're going to have a big meeting people can come down and you know sit down at facilitated tables not everybody's going to come I've worked in other communities where we boil down that same process since it's an online toolkit You can just download you can Have a neighborhood meeting on your own you can work with your church group You run through it yourself and you submit the the results I mean we want to come up with every tool that we can to hear from you And then this is the last My last slide. It's the timeline. There's a lot to do in a year We're projecting to be done with the final climate action adaptation plan You know in the spring of 2019 This first phase has been a lot of mobilization UTSA has been you know identifying best practices and methodologies Begin doing data research and and data collection around the greenhouse gas inventory We're working with Undeveloping what's the framework for the committee structure And finalizing the engagement plan and really the meat of the work is going to be occurring January through august of this coming year And with that and we'll I look forward to questions. I'm sure there's a lot of presentation And I'll turn it over to chris We're making our way through here Our next speaker is is dr. Hasem rushid Ali and he's the lead researcher for the project out of UTSA He's going to talk a little bit about kind of the scope of the work I think he's also has some interactions with the audience in terms of some questions that he's going to pose And so please welcome dr. Rushid. Good afternoon everybody. Thank you all for being here So on behalf of our team welcome, we greatly appreciate you joining us here We weren't expecting that big of a turnout, especially with the rain. So it's very exciting to see a full house So as chris mentioned I'm here because we didn't bring you all here so that you can listen to us We actually brought you all here so that we can listen to you So we're going to start with some activities. We're going to get you to be a bit more active Uh and engage you a bit Just in your cell phone. So nothing nothing more more more than that But before I do that, let me quickly acknowledge the rest of my team whose names you can see up there on the board So professor roger in leakage or maryfield keith millstein frenzine romero hatom sharif and rock tiller And as dr. Amy mentioned This project involves faculty from four different college, which I think to my knowledge is a first in UTSA Uh, I could be wrong But I think it's very exciting to have such a diverse A group of faculty working on a project and and from my point of view the issues of environmental sustainability Probably can never be tackled except in this way. They're so complex They're so far reaching that it does require a very diverse set of faculty to really come up with meaningful Solutions and that is what we hope to achieve. We hope that at the end of the process what we propose to the city are strategies that can actually be implemented Uh, but for those strategies to be implemented We also have to achieve Something else, which is buy-in from you from from the san antonio community and we're really committed to that This is this was a very important component and the scope of work that the city gave to us The cps insisted on and to be perfectly honest, even if they didn't we would have probably done the same thing I mean we are residents of san antonio first and foremost So we feel that it's very important to engage all of you to hear from all of you and to have a plan that represents all of you Uh, okay. So, uh, let's start with So we're gonna do some polling and To participate in the poll you can do that in one of two ways Both on your cell phone You can either text message or you can go to a web browser if you want to use text messages Uh, please start by texting s8 climate ready to three seven six zero seven This will get you, uh Added to our polling session and then when the questions come up, you can text your answers Uh, if you want to do it through a web browser again, you can browse to pollev.com Backslash s8 climate ready Okay, so, uh, we're gonna start with a really really difficult question A question that's going to test your loyalty to a certain degree. What's your favorite sports team? So as an Aggie who has worked in UTSA and lived in San Antonio for 12 years, I'm really happy I don't have to answer that question But you do so again either Go to a web browser or text a b cd or e or f Oh, come on. Not a single vote for the Aggies. Okay. Where are my students here? Wait, come on guys. The system is working, right? And the spurs are winning. We want to the next question because we're probably going to spend more time in the next questions So the next question again now we're want to hear from you about The best methods of public engagement So we are planning to do a lot of public engagement activities We understand that different people prefer different methods But you tell us which of these methods do you consider to be the best method for you to remain informed with Meeting in a box where you have a package of materials that are prepared by by our team And then that an organization can take and have their own meeting somewhere So small organizations neighborhood associations, for example So they have a structure for the meeting. They have materials for the meeting that they can use Sorry So social media seems to be dominating I'm happy to say that we're already up on social media. We do have a facebook page and a linkedin page and we're going to add more types of social media Very soon our website hopefully would be up We have a landing page already But our website will be up within the next few weeks That certainly would not be the only time we seek input from the community It's just an activity for you to Give us your input since you took the trouble of coming here. We felt that it's important for us to to hear from you so so If you voted for other Which other method would you prefer who voted for other? Okay, I appreciate that. But what is the other method? Uh, does that still exist? I'm sorry. I'm joking think we're stable now So social media is still probably the most preferred way Absolutely. Yes yes We would go where people are, okay That that certainly could be something that we can consider as well. Thank you. So the next question is a bit more serious How knowledgeable are you about climate change issues? And then I think that question gets to the point that many of us who Who told these issues and who thought about it and worked on them A lot of the resistance to climate issues comes from people who don't know that much about it And the more you know about it the more you start realizing how important these issues very knowledgeable audience Which is a which is a great thing Because then we can count on you to go back to your neighborhoods and to your friends and to your colleagues and start to talk to them about About what you're playing for all my students in the audience. Please do not take D I'll feel really bad about that So I think I think this result is probably more representative of our group that it is of the larger community I mean you are here because of your interest. So you already know a lot about the topic uh, but I think I think we do need to do a lot in terms of informing the community about climate change and about the issues that it can affect How concerned are you about the damage? That climate change can cost to our community You can't talk to us about why you're very concerned. I'm assuming you are very concerned, right? So why are you very concerned? Yeah That'll be your second vote any other thoughts Anybody wants to tell us why they're concerned? That's a good reason. Absolutely. I mean, I think all studies are showing that climate change Disproportionately affects underprivileged and underserved communities. So I think We all see that and that is completely not fair And why does it end up over that if that's what the community wants? I don't think that's the case, but Okay, so why is climate change happening in your point of view? I think that's the question that is directly related to What Catherine is going to talk about in a few minutes? Clearly the majority agrees with science. Who has the responsibility of doing something about it? Who has the most responsibility? We probably should have added an all the above option But it's always good to think through it and try to see who you think has the most responsibility I can see a lot of people who feel that it is Our responsibility is a personal responsibility on each one of us. Which issues are you most concerned about? In terms of Damage from climate change. So I think we clearly we still remember Harvey so extreme storms clearly are More on people's minds extreme heat Which is logical in our part of the country But also health impacts water security droughts Not much for higher energy costs. I think this is our final question Which of these activities do you think would help climate the most? And if you notice all of these are things that each one of us can do The 46 percent are all the cps people right think one thing that you probably now Have seen in Doug's presentation and will will probably become clear to you as we move forward with our project our project touches them on more or less every aspect of Of life in San Antonio. So we'll be looking at the energy sector the water sector transportation And many other sectors and so really if you want to tackle climate change It's a very comprehensive issue and you have to deal with it in spring of 2019 We will have produced the product that that has buy-in from all of you that you feel ownership of And that it becomes something that San Antonio can implement and hopefully It will take us to the Future in a much better way towards a much better life for everybody in San Antonio. So again, I think this is the last question So if you want to engage with us, we're we're story ramping up our activities But we already have an email feel free to use that email if you want to communicate with us We have a facebook Page we have a linked in page again People are starting already to to find these pages and communicate with them and our website Is being built at this moment. We have a landing page Is a climate ready dot org or dot net or that info we kind of would all of them just in case So The full site Hopefully will be up in in a few weeks By mid-january. Hopefully you will have something up for for you to be engaged in as well But again, we encourage all of you to please remain engaged with us Being here means that you are engaged, but we want you to continue to be so We want you to encourage your friends and colleagues to be engaged We want to hear from you. We will come to you but we also want you to reach out to us and tell us what you think and and Hopefully at the end of the process you'll be happy with the product that will come out of it Thank you so much and