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Aspen hosts climate summit

Marci Krivonen/Aspen Public Radio News

Mayors, councilmembers and county commissioners from across Colorado will gather in Aspen Thursday and Friday to discuss climate change initiatives.

 

Aspen Mayor Steve Skadron attended the 2015 Paris climate talks as part of an international organization of mayors who commit to local action to reduce greenhouse gasses. Now he wants to use that experience as a model to create a statewide network of communities that want to act on climate change.

The first step is to get everyone in the same room, so 86 government officials from ski towns, Front Range communities and small towns as far away as Wray, Colorado, will meet in Aspen this week.

“It’s going to be a fun event,” Skadron said. “It’s not a room full of climate zealots telling you to sell your car and eat tofu. It’s a balanced exchange around sound principles of a clean economy.”

The ultimate goal of the summit is to encourage attendees to sign on to a new organization called the Compact of Colorado Communities. Skadron describes this as “a network of Colorado mayors and elected officials dedicated to fighting climate change in their communities.”

Aspen native Elizabeth Stewart-Severy is excited to be making a return to both the Red Brick, where she attended kindergarten, and the field of journalism. She has spent her entire life playing in the mountains and rivers around Aspen, and is thrilled to be reporting about all things environmental in this special place. She attended the University of Colorado with a Boettcher Scholarship, and graduated as the top student from the School of Journalism in 2006. Her lifelong love of hockey lead to a stint working for the Colorado Avalanche, and she still plays in local leagues and coaches the Aspen Junior Hockey U-19 girls.