By: Mike Collins (WFAE)

Can Charlotte city reduce its carbon emissions from 12 tons a year to just 2 by 2050? That's the goal set this week by the City Council. Mike Collins talks with those involved in the city's climate change fight.

When President Trump pulled the U.S. out of the Paris climate agreement last June, mayors of Charlotte and other major cities vowed to pick up the mantle. Now, the city has set a goal for drastically scaling backing its carbon footprint.

Charlotteans pump out an estimated 12 tons of carbon dioxide annually, which the City Council now wants to bring down to two tons by 2050 under a resolution approved this week. It also calls for the city’s operations to be 100-percent powered by renewable energy.

But the “low-carbon city” resolution is non-binding, and doesn’t yet have a plan of attack, however that’s said to be the next step.

In a city that has no shortage of plans sitting on shelves, how do the city and its sustainability allies plan to keep these climate goals from just being a lot of hot air?

GUESTS

Shannon Binns, Sustain Charlotte, founder and executive director

June Blotnick, Clean Air Carolina, executive director

Listen to full interview here.