The Roadmap to Climate Action
How the City of St. Louis will build the capacity to ramp up and accelerate climate action over the next 5 years to meet its 2050 Carbon Neutrality Goal.
St. Louis City Sustainability & Climate Targets
Recognizing the need for the City to build effective infrastructure, funding, capacity, and policies to successfully address aggressive climate goals, the initial target for 2025 to 2030 is conservative and largely designed to enable the city to be successful in future years. By 2030, the City must have in place the organizational tools, policies, and enabling physical infrastructure such as renewable energy capacity and a strong transportation network to move to the next phase in decarbonization. As such a large percentage of the city’s emissions are a result of the fossil fuel mix provided by the investor-owned utility, Ameren; the targets align with the decommissioning of coal plants and the company’s pivot to cleaner fuels.
From 2030 to 2040, the City should move to increasing the requirements for all-electric buildings; supporting installation of more solar, battery, and renewables; building out an efficient waste and composting system; developing a circular economy; and drastically reducing vehicle miles traveled (VMT) in cars. To meet the 2050 target, the City and its residents and businesses will have to transition to nearly all non-fossil fuels, electric vehicles, reduced VMT, and fully sustainable waste and food management.
Explore the Roadmap
The Sustainability and Climate Action Plan is organized around three major pillars, with 13 goals and strategies implemented by 63 priority actions refined by the engagement process and the evaluation criteria defined below. Each pillar focuses on a different element of climate and sustainability. Select one of these three pillars to explore our goals, strategies, and actions for achieving sustainability and climate action in St. Louis City in the next five years.
Evaluation Criteria
A key aspect of the SCP development is ensuring that the actions put forward are equitable, economically feasible, environmentally beneficial, and implementable. To evaluate strategies and actions, the project team developed a criterion with input from the Community Advisory Group and the City’s Core Team. The team evaluated if each action met the criteria areas below.
Environmental Justice
Reduces Financial Burden
Removes Barriers
Repairs Past Harms
Environmental
GHG Reduction
Increases Resilience
Ecosystem Health
Systems Change
Human Impact
Health & Well-being
Community Alignment
Implementation
Identified Champion (Leader)
Under Jurisdiction
Policy/Plan Alignment
Total Cost
Available Funding & Resources
Long-Term Implications
Tracking Roadmap Progress
Through the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI), the City of St. Louis has access to the newly released ClearPath 2.0 tool, which provides upgraded capabilities for managing and analyzing data and strategy effectiveness. The City is documenting its goals and strategies, quantifying anticipated emissions impacts where applicable, and tracking progress.