Climate Action Plan

With the help of UNH Sustainability Fellows, Durham is in the process of completing its first Climate Action Plan (CAP). This plan outlines mitigation and adaptation actions, measures how much each activity will contribute to Durham meeting its mitigation and adaptation goals, and include a plan for implementing the actions. Mitigation actions focus on reducing Durham’s greenhouse gas emissions, while adaptation actions focus on adapting Durham to climate change impacts.

Baseline Assessment and Goal Setting

• Greenhouse Gas Inventory: Durham completed a Community-Wide Greenhouse Gas Inventory for the year 2019. Durham’s highest emissions are occurring in the built environment and transportation sectors, while land (largely from Durham’s forests and trees) contributed the most to removals.
• Mitigation Targets: Durham has committed to reducing 2019 greenhouse gas emissions by 35.5% by 2050, and achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The CAP will outline mitigation actions that will keep Durham on track towards meeting these targets.
• Risk and Vulnerability Assessment: Durham’s 2017 Multi-Hazard Mitigation Plan outlined Durham’s high, moderate, and low vulnerabilities to the impacts of climate change. Durham’s highest vulnerabilities included inland flooding, severe winter weather, and extended power failure. Since 2022, both the Hazard Mitigation Plan (HMP) and Climate Adaptation Master Plan are being finalized concurrently as part of the town's latest risk and vulnerability assessment based on Global Covenant of Mayors (GCoM) guidance and are due for approval in March 2023 by the Town Council and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
• Adaptation Goals: Similar to Durham’s emission reduction targets, Durham is creating risk reduction goals based on the findings of the 2022 HMP and Climate Adaptation Master Plan. The Adaptation portion i.e. preparing for and managing the risks of climate change impacts of CAP will be reported to GCOM by April 2023.

Action Identification and Prioritization
The first iteration of the CAP focused on short-term actions that are feasible based on Durham’s current and anticipated staffing and funding capabilities. It will be updated every two years per GCoM requirements. 

Summarizing the Town’s current status, Durham has already received a badge for its greenhouse gas inventory and targets. A complete Climate Action Plan has to have both mitigation and adaptation sections. They can either be submitted separately or compiled under one document. Since our current risk and vulnerability assessment is still ongoing, the goals and plan for adaptation are still being finalized. As of now, we have only submitted our Climate Action "Mitigation" Plan and are awaiting GCOM's evaluation of receiving a badge.

Check out the proposed actions in the PowerPoint presentation at the bottom of this page!

Opportunities for Input

After receiving approval from the Town Council, the Town of Durham has also presented to the Conservation and Agricultural Commissions. The latter will take a closer look at the CAP and send their additional comments. If anyone has any additional comments, please contact the Durham Energy Committee at dec@ci.durham.nh.us or Rafidah Rahman, UNH Sustainability Fellow at rafidahrahman93@gmail.com. 

Although we might not be able to incorporate every suggestion on the current Climate Action Plan, we can keep it in the backlog for future updates.