From the Charlotte Mecklenburg Climate Leaders
Signed by June Blotnick, Co-founder
May 19, 2026
RE: The Upcoming Vote for an Interim Mayor
Charlotte City Council will be appointing an interim mayor to fill the remaining year and a half of Mayor Vi Lyles’s two year term. This is a long period of time for an interim position, and it is critical that the person chosen recognizes the importance of environmental issues in Charlotte.
We are writing to let you know that Charlotte Mecklenburg Climate Leaders, a collaboration of numerous environmental organizations, are here to help and advise. We grew out of the advocates who pushed for our city to adopt a Strategic Energy Action Plan, introduced by Mayor Roberts and passed in 2018, to lower our carbon emissions and footprint throughout city operations. Our combined membership reach is in the thousands, and we have collaborated with more than our official members to advocate, advise, and bring about change to public policy.
We recognize that many city functions are extremely important to our climate and environmental health, ranging from the great work that Charlotte Water does to keep our drinking water clean and safe to the city buses and other vehicles that drive our streets daily, emitting diesel fumes and affecting the air we breathe. We advocated for the replacement of those vehicles with hybrid and all electric vehicles, and have been watching the SEAP+ dashboard to see the progress. We are pleased that the city is working to source more of its energy from clean sources, including the addition of solar panels on the roof of the Council Chambers. Preservation of the city’s tree canopy is also a city goal, and we applaud that we have a tree ordinance in place and a goal to increase the city’s tree canopy to reach 50% coverage by 2050.
Almost every volatile issue that the city faces right now has environmental considerations. We just saw the City Council vote to consider a pause on new data center construction, as they gather more and more information on the negative impacts of the largest ones. We also applaud the goal to rescind the approval of the widening of I-77 with all the displacement, environmental impacts, and inequities the project will have. We know there are other options and look forward to working with our partners to advocate for ones that best serve the community.
While we do not have a favorite candidate in mind for the interim mayor, we want to remind the council that environmental and climate concerns rank high in the city’s agenda. CMCL has been instrumental in supporting numerous city initiatives and in helping shape others to take into account the climate, equity, and the environmental and health impact of city operations and infrastructure. Informing and engaging the public on these issues is what we do and we encourage Council members to engage the public on this important issue. We look forward to working with the interim mayor and with the current council on these ongoing issues and welcome continuing open and honest engagement.