The Climate Issue At Hand

Since 2010 and with each passing year, Rhode Island has experienced ever more severe weather events brought on by the effects of climate change. In response to events such as Hurricane Sandy, Tropical Storm Irene, and Winter Storm Nemo, the General Assembly passed the Resilient Rhode Island Act of 2014 which established the Executive Climate Change Coordinating Council (EC4) and established specific greenhouse gas reduction targets. The Rhode Island Public Transit Authority (RIPTA) had begun to undertake its own efforts to operate more resilient and greener service prior to 2014 but since the EC4’s creation, the Authority has been an active participant in helping shape statewide policy concerning reducing emissions in the transportation sector.

The Authority has composed this Climate Action Plan with the purpose of adopting approaches to address climate change and to develop ways to ensure RIPTA is resilient against those challenges both in the short and long term. The scope of this plan includes the following:

• Overview of past and current initiatives and plans
• Inventory of RIPTA’s emissions
• RIPTA’s goals and targets for emissions reduction
• Specific strategies and actions to be undertaken by the Authority
• The Authority’s approach to implementing and monitoring this plan

RIPTA will work collaboratively with its federal, state, and local partners in carrying out a coordinated effort to minimize the impacts of climate change on vital government services, particularly public transit.

RIPTA is a participating agency of the Federal Transit Administration’s Sustainable Transit for a Healthy Planet Challenge. The challenge seeks “to encourage transit agencies to build on the progress already made and to further reduce [Greenhouse Gas] (GHG) emissions from public transportation to support President Biden’s GHG reduction goal.” The administration’s goal is “to achieve a 50-percent reduction from 2005 [GHG] levels in economy-wide net greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution in 2030.” This Climate Action Plan is being submitted in response to the challenge.

The Authority will use the Action Plan as guidance in making business decisions in order to become a more sustainable agency and reduce or eliminate our carbon footprint. This plan shall be treated as a living document and will be reviewed on a regular basis and amended as needed to reflect new information, projects, plans, etc.

Click here to view and/or download RIPTA’s Climate Action Plan