Residents from three different local climate action groups spoke to the Ames City Council during Tuesday night’s meeting and urged them to give greater focus to the threat of climate change.

Students from Iowa State, Ames High School and other Ames residents made a collective effort to ask the council to keep climate change in mind when forming new policies and when moving forward with the upcoming comprehensive city plan.

“So far there hasn’t been big a big enough effort to address the effects of climate change,” said Hector Arbuckle, a freshman in biology at Iowa State and member of the Iowa State Climate Reality Corps.

The chambers were filled with community members eager to listen to the different climate-focused groups. Arbuckle and other speakers referenced a recent international climate change report that indicated the human race could face dire existential consequences if greenhouse gas emissions weren’t drastically reduced by 2030.

They voiced their support for Ames initiatives like SunSmart, a project which seeks to expand the city’s use of renewable energy, but said the council needs to be more ambitious moving forward.

“We really need a large, concerted effort to get Ames to 100 percent renewable energy by 2030,” Arbuckle said.

He also voiced his support for other groups in attendance, such as the Ames Climate Action Team and the high school group CAUSE (Citizens Actualizing And Understanding Sustainable Environments.)

“Our elected officials have a responsibility to address the threats our citizens are facing,” said Chiara Travesset, CAUSE member and student at Ames High School. Travesset informed the council about a petition CAUSE had issued, which gained more than 600 signatures over the week of Jan. 5 supporting climate action.

CAUSE’s efforts were supported by Allison Brundy and Jeri Neal, members of the Ames Climate Action Team.  

“We’re excited to be working with them [CAUSE], and we’re going to be coming to more meetings to talk about climate change,” Neal said. “There are good things in play, but these efforts lack the urgency that we’re all feeling we need.”

Brundy asked the Council to help facilitate change by working with the community to set and reach important sustainability goals.

“We’re a community of scientists and engineers,” Brundy said. “I ask for your help to get the city to reduce emissions of greenhouse gasses.”

The council didn’t provide the climate groups with feedback, as the comments came during the public forum segment and climate policy wasn’t scheduled for Tuesday’s meeting. 

The Council also approved a new round of improvement grant funding for a human service program for fiscal year 2020. The program, adopted in February 2017, allocated $500,000 to support human service agencies. The Council decided in 2017 to approve use of half of those funds, and approved for the remaining $250,000 to be spent over the next few years.