This is the extract from the town warrant:

ARTICLE 71:

ARTICLE 71 RESOLUTION/SUSTAINABILITY ACTION PLAN

To see if the Town will adopt the following: WHEREAS, global warming increasingly threatens the world’s health, environment, and economy;

WHEREAS, melting of arctic and Antarctic ice, the Greenland ice mass, and glaciers around the world is proceeding at a rapid rate;

WHEREAS, the consensus among scientists is that the world must reduce its emissions of greenhouse gases by at least 75% in order to eventually stabilize the climate;

WHEREAS, Massachusetts will be increasingly harmed by global warming through changes in our climate, worsening of storms, floods, and droughts, damage to native plant and animal species, rising sea levels, spread of diseases, and losses to our economy;

WHEREAS, the New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers released a Climate Action Plan in 2001 setting goals of reducing GHG emissions to 1990 levels by 2010, to 10% below 1990 levels by 2020, and eventually by 75 to 85% below current levels;

WHEREAS, the State of Massachusetts issued its own Climate Action Plan in 2005 committing the State to the same goals and laying out a range of policies to achieve the goals;

WHEREAS, actions to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other GHGs can be taken not only at the national and state levels, but also by local government and households;

WHEREAS, in the year 2000 the Town of Arlington joined the international Cities for Climate Protection campaign through a vote by the Selectmen, committing itself to reducing local emissions of GHGs;

WHEREAS, an inventory done for Arlington in 2000 estimated that total global warming emissions attributable to Arlington’s residents, businesses, Town government and other institutions were the equivalent of 473,540 tons of CO2 in 1997;

WHEREAS, Sustainable Arlington, on behalf of the Town, completed a Climate Action Plan (Arlington Sustainability Action Plan, or ASAP, Part I) that sets goals of reducing our local GHG emissions by 6% in 2010 and 12% in 2015, and lays out a range of actions to achieve these goals;

WHEREAS, the Board of Selectmen has endorsed the ASAP Part I and instructed the Town Manager to participate in its implementation;

Therefore,

Arlington Town Meeting hereby votes to adopt the ASAP Part I, and further instructs the Town Manager to place a priority on its implementation, including creation of an Energy Management Task Force for the Town, which shall have the responsibility to maximize energy efficiency within Town operations, to promote efficiency for Town residents and businesses, and to explore possibilities for implementing renewable energy within the Town.

(Inserted by the Board of Selectmen and at the request of Sustainable Arlington)