You may have heard something about “Climate Action Plans.” Binghamton University recently released a CAP, and the city of Binghamton is currently drafting one, along with the state of New York. But what exactly are they?

Each one of these plans centers around carbon, an element that forms the skeleton of each organic molecule that makes up our bodies, the earth’s plants and the atmosphere. It is not a dangerous element, but it does follow the rule of “everything is good in moderation.”

CO2 is among the group of what we now call greenhouse gases, which, despite their bad name, are not actually evil. In fact, without greenhouse gases, which include water vapor, methane and nitrous oxide, the Earth would be much cooler and unfit for the kind of life that it now supports.

So why the uproar? Well, just as animals have evolved to survive well in very specific environments, the atmosphere has developed to contain the perfect proportion of gases to maintain the life it holds. An excess in carbon occurs when long-stored carbon, such as that in fossil fuels, is released faster than it can be absorbed. Destabilizing the proportion of gases in the atmosphere will bring about many changes — some we can foresee and others we cannot because there is no basis for comparison. This is what makes people nervous.

With this in mind, we can delve into the CAP. The CAP is basically an overlook of all aspects of energy usage within borders, such as campus or city borders. It is also, however, a plan to alter major and minor activities in an effort to rework negligent or detrimental energy policy. It focuses on carbon, but spans the spectrum of environmental problems because most of them can be traced to some kind of carbon output.

Community members meet and separate into groups; for instance, the city of Binghamton created residential, governmental, industrial and community outreach committees. Each of these smaller groups examine the different aspects of daily life that use energy and determine how to decrease usage. These could be as general as mandatory levels of insulation for homes or as specific as the efficiency of an oven used in a bakery. No matter the guidelines, a CAP can be molded in a way to be locally effective.

In theory, the plan should include ways to apply findings. However, as with any official form of paperwork, a written design does not imply action. A CAP must include dedicated people that will see the plan through.

It’s also important to consider that some things that offset carbon output are not inherently more sustainable. According to the Climate Action Plan released on Nov. 10, 2009, BU’s plan suggests 100 percent biomass energy usage by 2030. However, it also states that the present source of waste wood chips that the plant runs on is not unlimited. There is no specification as to where that biomass will come from in the future, which is an important issue for anyone to consider upon reading the report.

This is an exciting time for Binghamton. The city’s developing CAP is going to be used as a form of reference for New York state’s CAP, as Amelia LoDolce, Binghamton’s sustainable development planner, is on the state’s task force. Mayor Matt Ryan’s progressive leadership gives me hope that the goals set by the plan will be pragmatic and attainable, making Binghamton a model city for environmental awareness.

We should remain excited, but also be critical. Important questions always need to be asked, even for progressive policy. Few things turn out as peachy as they sound.