Mayor Jean Quan will talk about Oakland's Energy and Climate Action Plan this Sunday with the public and Emily Kirsch, head of the Oakland Climate Action Coalition of organizations that helped create the plan. You can catch them at Montclair Presbyterian Church on 5701 Thornhill Road starting at 12:15 p.m.

The forum is free and open to the public. 

Passed last month by the City Council after two years of work by the coalition, the Oakland Energy and Climate Action Plan is a roadmap for how the city, its residents, businesses and organizations can reduce greenhouse gas emissions from this city while also creating green jobs and a healthier environment for those who live here.

It sets a goal of reducing green house gas emissions by 36 percent below 2005 levels by the year 2020, which is among the most aggressive in the nation for municipal climate action plans.

The plan lists 150 steps to be taken to reach that goal. Some are steps for individuals to take - such as driving less in fossil fuel burning cars - while others are for city government or business to pursue - such as launching a downtown electric vehicle shuttle or bus rapid transport, adopting green building codes and retrofitting commercial buildings. Still others are for business and nonprofits to pursue.

"Oakland now has this climate action plan, but nobody knows much about it," said Arthur Paull, the congregant at the Montclair Presbyterian Church who set up the forum with Quan and Kirsch.

"My church has a long history of social justice activity and one of our areas of focus is climate change," he said. So his ministry committee invited Kirsch and Quan to talk about it and invited the public to attend.

Kirsch heads the green jobs program and climate action program at the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights. She said that her organization, joined with other nonprofits, will pursue three campaigns to help realize the plan's goals.

One is to win control over the revenue from the so-called "public goods surcharge" that utility ratepayers pay to Pacific Gas & Electric for alternative energy development. The coalition claims that PG&E is way behind on meeting its targets for alternative energy development so that it should not be able to continue to monopolize the proceeds of that surcharge.

A second campaign, Kirsch said in her blog, is expanding and increasing the number of Oakland's urban farms for local vegetable and poultry production.

Thirdly, as green building comes to Oakland, he organization and others will work to assure that low income housing does not get displaced, but rather is included in the green retrofitting.