Mike Wolanin | The Republic Columbus Mayor Jim Lienhoop delivers the annual State of the City address at The Commons in Columbus, Ind., Monday, March 6, 2023.
COLUMBUS, Ind. — Columbus Mayor Jim Lienhoop, along with the leaders of nearby communities, are preparing to announce the launch of a regional alliance to address climate change.
The announcement, which will take place Friday at Nashville Town Hall, is expected to include remarks from Lienhoop, Bloomington Mayor John Hamilton and Nashville Town Manager Sadie Jones.
The three leaders will discuss “the next steps of working together in a bipartisan, cross-sector, multi-county effort to address climate change,” including “committing to launch a southern Indiana regional climate alliance,” the city of Bloomington said.
Currently, it is unclear what kinds of measures the alliance will take, though it could include an update of Columbus’ greenhouse gas emissions inventory, Lienhoop said.
Lienhoop said the group of leaders hopes “to see what kind of a budget we might be able to accumulate and work with folks in this arena to help us understand what is measurable and what can be influenced and try to adopt some goals for what we want to improve.”
“We thought we would give people a little bit of an update on the conversations that we’ve had,” Lienhoop said. “We don’t have any specific initiatives to announce but felt like it was appropriate for us to say something since it had been a while since we last spoke to the public.”
The launch of the regional alliance comes nearly six months since Linehoop and Hamilton hosted a regional climate convening to “address the shared challenge” of climate change and “explore preparation, adaptation and mitigation measures.”
The event included remarks by Lienhoop and Hamilton, panel discussions, break-out work and a keynote address by Cummins Executive Chairman Tom Linebarger.
For the complete story, see Thursday’s Republic.
