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IDCLIMATE COLLABORATION Joint Letter of Commitment: Climate Change Actions in King County Climate change is a paramount challenge of this generation and has far - reaching and fundamental consequences for our economy, environment, public health, and safety. KING couNTy-Cities Across King County and its cities, we are already experiencing the impacts of climate change: warming temperatures, acidifying marine waters, rising seas, decreasing mountain snowpack, and less water in streams during the summer. These changes have the potential for significant impacts to public and private property, resource based economies like agriculture and forestry, and to residents' health and quality of life. The decisions we make locally and regionally, such as where our communities will grow and how they will be served by transportation, will set the stage for success or failure in reducing carbon pollution, making sound long -term investments, and ensuring our communities are livable and resilient to climate change impacts. Current science indicates that to avoid the worst impacts of global warming we need to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions sharply. The King County Growth Management Planning Council — a formal body of elected officials from across King County - voted unanimously on July 23, 2014 to adopt a shared target to reduce countywide sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, compared to a 2007 baseline, by 25% by 2020, 50% by 2030, and 80% by 2050. Based on our shared assessment of emissions in King-County, and review of potential strategies to reduce emissions, we believe that these targets ace ambitious but achievable. Building on the work of the King County- Cities Climate Collaboration (K4C) - a partnership between the County and cities to coordinate and enhance local government climate and sustainability efforts — more than a dozen cities and the County came together in the first half of 2014 to chart opportunities for joint actions to reduce GHG emissions and accelerate progress towards a clean and sustainable future. The attached Principles for Collaboration and Joint County -City Climate Commitments are focused on practical, near -term, collaborative opportunities between cities and King County. These shared commitments build on the significant work that many of our cities and County are already taking. By signing this letter, we pledge our support for the shared vision that these principles and actions represent. Our cities commit to actively pursue those strategies and catalytic actions where our jurisdictions can make the most impact given our size, location, and development patterns. Through focused, coordinated action, we will maximize the impact of our individual and shared efforts. 1944 1 6rieji 1