Annual funding for the City of Minneapolis’s Climate Legacy Initiative approved by the City Council last December aims to reduce carbon emissions and eventually make the city carbon neutral. 

The $10 million investment allocates $4.7 million to improve energy efficiency in buildings, $1.4 million for workforce training and $850,000 for tree planting and maintenance. 

The initiative funds the city’s new Climate Equity Plan, which provides a roadmap for climate work over the next decade by reducing climate pollution by 2030 and becoming carbon neutral by 2050.

“You can’t put a price on saving our planet — but the Climate Legacy Initiative triples our investment in climate work and paves the way for important climate initiatives across Minneapolis,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said in a statement. 

The initiative comes in the wake of the Minneapolis 2040 plan’s failure to take root. The plan is intended to create more affordable housing, but lawsuits have delayed its implementation. 

Council member Katie Cashman (Ward 7) said the initiative is funded through a franchise fee, which could make people pay more for their bills. 

“The franchise fee is attached to your electric and gas bill,” Cashman said. “It does follow the polluter pays principle, meaning that the more pollution you’re causing, the more you pay, and that incentivizes you to actually lower your gas.” 

Scheckre Wheeler, president of the student group 365Green, said community engagement is vital to spreading climate change awareness. 

“Putting that on public radios and reaching out to Minnesota-based popular artists and things like that could really move that forward because most people don’t hear about things from the news anymore,” Wheeler said. “What that could look like on campus would be having a couple student groups go out and plant trees with them, with city workers or having a talk on campus.” 

Cashman worked closely with organizations such as Unidos MN and MN350 to improve sustainability and create green jobs. 

“Clean energy investments are only possible if you have someone who knows how to install them and who knows how to actually make them work for your building,” Cashman said. 

Green Cities Accord Board Chair David Wilson, said the urban tree canopy is important as it reduces heat, collects rainwater and limits air pollution around the city. 

“A mature tree in an urban area can actually capture up to 60% of the precipitation,” Wilson said. “Thirty percent is captured by the leaves and 30% is sucked up by the roots.”

Cashman is the chair of the Climate and Infrastructure Committee and hopes to increase the initiative’s funding.

“We know that just weatherizing and retrofitting the homes across our city is going to cost hundreds of billions of dollars, and so $10 million just barely gets us started,” Cashman said.

She added that the committee hopes to move investments up to $100 million annually. 

Cashman said 40% of the initiatives’ funds go to underprivileged communities in the city called green zones. In Minneapolis, those are in the north and south of the city.

“The green zones of Minneapolis have been designated as the neighborhoods of our city where we’re prioritizing, making sure that the funding out of this is flowing into those neighborhoods,” Cashman said. “Other neighborhoods are still gonna be eligible for this, but just making sure that lower-income neighborhoods are prioritized.” 

Wilson said the initiative is a good first step to see what does and does not work in the city.

“I hope it’s a first step that the city is going to continue to invest more money in and find out what is working really well,” Wilson said. “Getting young people educated and involved is most important because people your age are going to be impacted the most by climate change.”

Wheeler said residents need to see the impact of the initiative to feel motivated to advocate for green policies.

“If they’re not included, they don’t see the effect and they don’t see the change, and then they don’t care,” Wheeler said.