Local leaders discuss ways municipalities can make an environmental difference

From installing solar panels to creating new walking paths, local leaders are exploring ways their communities can create or modify infrastructure to reduce the impacts of climate change.

The League of Women Voters of Roselle-Bloomingdale this week hosted an event examining climate change in northern Illinois. The virtual discussion included what local governments are doing to create solutions that address the problem.

The panel featured University of Illinois professor Donald J. Wuebbles, Roselle Mayor David Pileski and Edith Makra of the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus.

Wuebbles said Illinois has been seeing more extreme weather patterns such as heavier rainfall and flooding, as well as hotter nights in recent years. Illinois can potentially have a 9-degree Fahrenheit temperature increase by the end of the century, according to Wuebbles. He said that would have a devastating impact on the state.

"Our future depends on how we act on limiting climate change," Wuebbles said. "We must draw on our long history of responding to changing conditions on our planet in facing the challenges of climate change."

Makra presented information from the Climate Action Plan for the Chicago Region, which focuses on net-zero emissions by 2050 and adaptation to the current climate, such as implementing clean energy policies, expanding mass transit, and water management.

The plan says local municipalities can make a significant difference with their actions. For example, towns can make buildings energy-efficient and approve initiatives that encourage the use of solar and other clean energy. Municipalities also can build infrastructure that allows people to walk or bike instead of drive.

Pileski explained that Roselle is doing a Parkway Tree Planting Project and working to have solar panels installed on roughly 200 buildings in the village.

"This is going to take a generational effort to solve," Pileski said. "As a mayor, someone from the millennial generation, as a gardener, and a new father, this is something important to me that we tackle. I don't want to pass this on to my daughter and her family to solve."