In August, I worked with One Montgomery Green, Integrative Strategies Forum and Poolesville Green to present “Leading the Way — Montgomery County Confronts Climate Change.” This month, a public briefing following up on the discussions at this important conference will be held in Rockville.

More than 80 residents, specialists and others attended last month’s public meeting in Silver Spring, sharing what local groups are doing to mitigate climate change, reviewing county programs in its Climate Mobilization Report and discussing initiatives the county could launch or expand to reduce our carbon footprint.

The meeting was held as an affiliate event with the Global Climate Action Summit , set for Sept. 12-14 in San Francisco.

As a result of these discussions, a report will be presented to county leaders at a public briefing at 6-8 p.m. Sept. 12 at the Council Office Building in Rockville.

As the Council’s Lead for Environment — and with frightening news about rising sea levels and record wildfires, floods and heatbeing reported on practically a daily basis — I know that fighting climate change is among our generation’s most urgent challenges.

Our County Council has set an ambitious goal of zero carbon emissions by 2035 and I’m committed to helping meet that goal.

This year I spearheaded a successful proposal to change our zoning law to allow community solar projects, each capable of generating up to 2 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 200 homes. And next month there will be hearing on another proposal of mine that’s designed to cut the red tape and expense for businesses that want to install their own solar projects.

More information about the Sept. 12 briefing is here: https://bit.ly/2NBmkgT