My comments at Philadelphia City Council on 9/14/17.

Hello. My name is Meenal Raval, a resident of Mt Airy & Roxborough. My regrets for not being present today. 

I commend Council on resolution 170706, committing Philadelphia to meet our share of the targets set by the Paris Climate Accord. 

As we set long-term goals for a swiftly changing climate, let’s sit up and look at our targets. 

  • Mayor Kenney’s campaign promise, and Philadelphia’s current long-term goal is to reduce emissions 80% by 2050. 
  • The US committed to 28% reduction by 2028 when we signed onto the Paris Accord. 
  • This resolution asks the City of Philadelphia to commit to becoming carbon-neutral by 2050. Another way to put this is 100% reduction by 2050, a faster transition than what our Mayor stepped up to. 

To show how quickly we’ll need to revise these goals, I’d like to refer to the OFF act sponsored by Rep Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii just this month. The Off Fossil Fuels Act, offers a vision to “justly transition away from fossil fuel sources of energy to 100 percent clean energy by 2035”. You can lookup HR 3671. This vision includes clean energy, zero-emission vehicles, electric trains, a moratorium on new fossil fuel projects, ending fossil fuel subsidies, tax credit extensions for wind & solar projects, a ban on crude oil & LNG exports, and even a just transition.  

That’s 100% by 2035, 15 years ahead of the resolution in front of us today. 

Glacial speed takes on a different meaning these days. We, therefore, need to swiftly pass this resolution and prepare to translate it into tangible actions. Where we rapidly electrify everything, and clean up the grid.  

At a household scale, this means replacing automobile use with walking, cycling, transit and electric cars. And replacing gas boilers with electric heat pumps. 

You, as Council, need to begin crafting policies to encourage these behaviors, be it Vision Zero, EV charging, or transit powered by clean energy. 

You need to ask SEPTA, and every other agency to stop investing in fossil fuel infrastructure at this late stage of planetary fever. 

Know that you have the support of many Philadelphians. 

Meenal Raval | meenal.raval@gmail.com | 267.709.3415