The city introduced a climate action plan back in 2004. In case you haven’t read this *exciting* tome, I’ve done the work for you. All the numbers are circa 2004.

Goal: 20% Green House Gas (GHG) reduction by 2012 (20% below 1990 levels) – 7.2 million tons of CO2

Current GHG production/year: 9.7 million tons of CO2 produced

Potential Impacts:
* Sea level rise
* Greater beach erosion
* More frequent El Nino conditions – More rain = less snow in Sierras leading to less water available in summer.
* Marine life – unknown impacts due to changes in water flow and salinity

The actions were broke into four categories: Transportation, Energy Efficiency, Renewable Energy, and Solid Waste. Read on for a breakdown of CO2 savings. I’ll be doing a category by category analysis over the next few days.

Transportation

* 555 of this number comes from a 5 mi/gall increase in federal fuel efficiency standards (CAFE). The city has no control IF and when this would happen.

Energy Efficiency

Renewable Energy

Solid Waste

Totals

Takeaway
Out of the total 2.614 million tons of CO2 reduction, 21.2% comes from a federal increase in CAFE standards (5 mi/gall increase in fuel efficiency for every vehicle). Let’s be frank, we don’t know if that will happen and the city has no control over it. There is also a focus on increasing energy efficiency for businesses, most likely to be incentivized somehow (16.6%). Another big element is buying more green based power – 8.8% – (dependent on state developing more green based power for the grid) and developing wind power (9.14%). Finally, increased recycling, both commercial and residential, accounts for 11.5% reduction.

At least 30% of the reduction comes from factors not directly controllable by the city. At the same time, there are some very admirable and seemingly attainable goals when it comes to recycling and energy efficiency. It’ll be interesting to hear Melissa’s take on how the city is doing 3 years into the 8 year plan.