Climate Action Plan

With the help of UNH Sustainability Fellows, Durham completed its first Climate Action Plan (CAP) in 2022. 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.

Durham's current UNH Sustainability Fellow, Sophie Goodwin, will be assisting the town in drafting and submitting the next CAP for 2025-2030.

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. The 2022 Community-Wide Greenhouse Gas Inventory is nearly completed and scheduled to be released soon.
• 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. The 2022 Hazard Mitigation Plan (HMP) and Climate Adaptation Master Plan were finalized concurrently as part of the town's latest risk and vulnerability assessment based on Global Covenant of Mayors (GCoM) guidance, and were approved 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.

Opportunities for Input

The Town of Durham is currently preparing for its 2025-2030 CAP with the help of UNH Sustainability Fellow, Sophie Goodwin. For suggestions or input on the next iteration of the town Climate Action Plan, please email sophie.goodwin@unh.edu or the Energy Committee at dec@ci.durham.nh.us. 

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.