Los Alamos Reporter

LWV Lunch With A Leader Speaker June 16 Is NMED Climate Change Policy Coordinator Claudia Borchert

LWV NEWS RELEASE

The League of Women Voters’ event for the entire community, Lunch With a Leader, is on Thursday, June 16, via zoom from 12-1 p.m. Their speaker will be Claudia Borchert who joined the New Mexico’s Environment Department in November 2020 as the Environmental Protection Division’s Climate Change Policy Coordinator.

As a member of the leadership team of New Mexico’s interagency Climate Change Task Force, Claudia is developing a suite of climate action strategies for the state’s 5-year climate action plan to achieve the statewide greenhouse gas emission reduction goal of at least 45% below 2005 levels by 2030.  Claudia is also implementing climate actions specified in New Mexico’s Governor Lujan Grisham 2019-003 Executive Order on Addressing Climate Change and Energy Waste including cleaner tailpipe emission standards for passenger cars and reducing the carbon intensity of transportation fuels through a market-based clean fuel standard.  

Claudia spent the previous three years serving as Santa Fe County’s Sustainability Manager, where she implemented a plan for the County’s operations to achieve 100% renewable electricity by 2024 through a combination of behind-the-meter and utility-subscriber photovoltaic-sourced electricity. Other past work includes running the County’s water and wastewater utility, planning for sustainable use of the City of Santa Fe’s climate-change-impacted water supply, and creating laws that provide in-stream flow for the Santa Fe River.

Claudia grew up in serene midwestern college town of Lawrence, Kansas before heading east to Amherst College, Massachusetts to pursue her undergraduate degree in geology. Following her passion of chasing down flying plastic discs (e.g., ultimate frisbee), Claudia moved to Santa Fe in 1990.  The next decade resulted in marriage, two daughters, the construction of multiple homes, and a Master’s degree in hydrogeology from UNM’s Earth and Planetary Sciences. After working in the private sector for several years, Claudia began her 20-year career as a civil servant, working in water resource and climate change planning for city, county and state government.

The topics she will cover include:

  • The NM Governor’s climate change initiatives as described in her 2019 Executive Order.
  • NMED’s recent rules regulating the oil and gas industry and new motor vehicle emission standards
  • The state’s Climate Change Task Force climate action plan