City of Detroit Seeks Members for New Climate Equity Advisory Council
The council will help inform the drafting of the city’s road map on how to reduce emissions and protect residents from climate change impacts like hotter days and flooding.
The City of Detroit is seeking applicants for its new Climate Equity Advisory Council. The deadline to apply is 11:59 p.m. Sunday.
The council is meant to inform the drafting of the Detroit Climate Strategy. Detroit Sustainability Director Joel Howrani Heeres says the strategy, expected to be released in January of 2022, will be the city’s road map on how to reduce emissions and protect residents from climate change impacts like hotter days and flooding.
“The Climate Equity Advisory Council is going to help ensure that, both from the governmental side and from the community side, that we’re really upholding and baking equity into the strategy throughout.” –Joel Howrani Heeres, City of Detroit Sustainability Director
“And so really, the Climate Equity Advisory Council is going to help ensure that, both from the governmental side and from the community side, that we’re really upholding and baking equity into the strategy throughout,” says Howrani Heeres.
Advisory members might help decide where trees should be planted to lower temperatures and mitigate flooding, Howrani Heeres says, or the members might recommend where money should be spent to retrofit homes for energy efficiency, to name a couple of examples.
Members will meet monthly to review draft documents of the climate strategy. They will receive a stipend for their time, but Howrani Heeres says the amount is to be determined.
Officials are hoping to attract six representatives from organizations that do environmental justice work or that focus on groups like youth, immigrants, seniors and people with low incomes. The city is additionally hoping to attract seven residents from areas that it believes are vulnerable to climate change, based on research by University of Michigan researcher Larissa Larsen. These areas tend to include high proportions of residents living in poverty and who are seniors but might lack trees or surfaces that can absorb water.
People interested in applying to be on the Detroit Climate Equity Advisory Council can do so here.
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