‘Off track’: San Diego County cities aren’t making enough progress on climate goals, report finds
Each city was evaluated based on its implementation of its own climate action plan — a blueprint to guide local governments in curbing greenhouse gas emissions A report by the Climate Action Campaign has found that San Diego County's nine largest cities are failing to meet their climate goals. The report suggests that they need to act faster to reduce emissions, work to electrify buildings and reduce reliance on cars. Each city was judged based on its implementation of its own climate action plan, a blueprint to guide local governments in curbing greenhouse gas emissions. The cities were graded out of 100 points, with La Mesa earning the highest score of 85. However, Anthony Dang, the report's author, expressed concern that the changes cities are making won't be enough to significantly reduce emissions. He also highlighted the need for more urgent, bolder and ambitious implementation of alternative modes of transportation, such as walking, cycling and public transit, and suggested that the city should invest in these systems.
Publié : il y a 10 mois par Maura Fox dans Environment
The Coaster train rides along the beach in Del Mar on Friday, June 25, 2021.
San Diego County’s nine biggest cities have made progress to mitigate their greenhouse gas emissions but still aren’t meeting their climate goals, a new report finds.
The cities — Carlsbad, Chula Vista, Encinitas, Escondido, La Mesa, Oceanside, San Diego, San Marcos and Vista — need to act faster to reduce emissions, work to electrify buildings instead of relying on gas and better connect communities to reduce reliance on cars, the Climate Action Campaign says in its report card.
“We’re seeing some bright spots in terms of what some cities are able to achieve, but overall, cities are still very much so off track, like they have been, in reaching their climate goals,” said Anthony Dang, the report’s author and the group’s policy and community outreach manager. “And that’s a concern because it just leaves all of our communities vulnerable to the climate crisis.”
Each city was evaluated based on its implementation of its own climate action plan — a blueprint to guide local governments in curbing greenhouse gas emissions.
The report card focused on the county’s nine most populated cities, although nearly all cities in the county have adopted such a plan.
While most cities scored better than in the group’s last report card in 2022, Dang says the “incremental” changes cities are making won’t be enough to substantially reduce emissions.
The report card graded the cities based on a range of criteria, including on how they’ve implemented strategies for clean energy, transportation and zero waste and on whether they submitted an annual monitoring report on their progress.
The cities were graded out of 100 points. La Mesa earned the highest score, at 85, with Encinitas close behind at 82. Read the full report card here.
Dang said that successful implementation of a climate action plan comes down to the political will of elected officials.
Across the board, he’d like to see “more urgent, bolder and ambitious implementation,” including plans to increase alternative modes of transportation, such as walking, cycling and public transit, and electrifying buildings to move away from gas-powered stoves and heaters.
Many of the recommendations in this year’s report card echoed concerns raised in the previous one.
But the new one also highlighted the catastrophic flooding in San Diego on Jan. 22, which affected nearly 8,000 people from about 2,400 households, largely in underserved communities.
The city has a of $1.6 billion, and the report card called for greater investment in such systems to mitigate future disasters.
“I think that event and the lack of climate justice and equity we saw from it is a direct result of the city of San Diego’s decision around how they approach climate change and climate policies,” Dang said.
A city spokesperson declined to comment on the report. The city has launched a new climate action plan implementation dashboard tracking its progress.
Earlier this year, the city settled a lawsuit by the Climate Action Campaign accusing it of violating state environmental law with its 2022 climate action plan update. As part of that deal, the city now must report its progress on reducing greenhouse gas emissions annually, instead of waiting until 2030.
“This agreement reinforces the city’s commitment to fully implementing the Climate Action Plan transparently and collaboratively, while also eliminating uncertainty over the status of the CAP and development plans that rely on its mitigation measures,” Mayor Todd Gloria told The San Diego Union-Tribune in an email at the time.
In assessing cities’ climate action plans, the new report card does highlight some successes.
A total of 13 out of 18 cities in San Diego County, plus the county’s unincorporated communities, have joined a Community Choice Energy program, such as San Diego Community Power or the Clean Energy Alliance, which has helped to bring renewable energy options to about a million residents.
Encinitas is also working toward being the first city in the region to adopt an ordinance that would incentivize all-electric building construction.
Despite each city working on its own goals, Dang emphasized the need for the region to work collaboratively toward climate solutions since “climate change has no boundaries.”
He pointed to the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG), which received $1 million in last September that the organization has used to create its Regional Priority Climate Action Plan, published on March 1.
SANDAG also monitors the implementation of individual cities’ climate action plans through biannual reports.
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