Findings and Purpose. | |
Definitions. | |
Climate Action Goals. | |
Future Climate Action Goals. | |
Climate Action Plan. | |
City Department Roles and Responsibilities. | |
Market-Based Compliance Mechanisms. | |
Monitoring, Evaluation, and Reporting. | |
Implementation of All-Electric Building Standard. | |
The Board of Supervisors finds that:
(a) In 2016, the Paris Climate Agreement committed national governments to pursue efforts to limit temperature rises to 1.5 degrees Celsius. In 2018, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued a special report on the impacts of global warming and the need to significantly reduce global greenhouse gas emissions well before 2030 to reduce the most detrimental impacts to ecosystems and to human health.
(b) In 2018, the United States’ Fourth National Climate Assessment made clear that climate change will wreak havoc across the United States, and that the current pace and scale of national climate action are not sufficient to avert substantial damage to the environment, human health, and economy. According to the San Francisco Department of Public Health’s Climate and Health Adaptation Framework (2017), the direct and indirect impacts of climate change will disproportionately affect San Francisco communities least able to prepare for, cope with, and recover from those impacts. Those communities include communities of color, low income communities, and other vulnerable populations.
(c) San Francisco, the Bay Area, and the State of California are already suffering the effects of climate change in the form of droughts, air pollution, extreme heat, frequent wildfires, flooding, and much more.
(d) At the 2018 Global Climate Action Summit, San Francisco committed to meet the Paris Agreement by achieving a net zero city by 2050. The City joined in a Climate Equity Pledge to ensure that the City’s 2020 Climate Action Strategy update achieves the dual goals of advancing racial equity and decreasing carbon emissions.
(e) San Francisco’s climate commitments and climate action strategy are framed by the City’s “0-80-100-Roots” framework, which defines climate and sustainability goals in four key areas: zero waste (“0% zero waste”), transportation (“80% low-carbon trips”), energy (“100% renewable energy”), and carbon sequestration (“Roots”).
(f) One of the City’s fundamental goals in implementing the 0-80-100-Roots Climate Action Framework is to promote equity by ensuring that implementation reflects and responds to the economic, political, and social needs of different San Francisco vulnerable communities.
(g) Achieving the “0-80-100-Roots” goals in the City will mean cleaner air, fewer vehicles on the road, more reliable transit systems, more bike lanes and pedestrian-friendly networks, highly efficient homes and businesses powered by 100% clean electricity, a robust urban tree canopy, plentiful green spaces, improved soil health, and a regenerative ecosystem.
(h) Meaningful climate solutions will require increasing supplies of high-quality housing affordable to households at all income levels and located near local and regional transit service. These solutions will also require well-coordinated land use and transportation planning and investments to support low-carbon trips using efficient travel modes such as transit, walking, and biking, in order to reduce vehicle miles traveled and associated emissions.
(i) The success of the City in achieving its climate goals thus far has been clear: in 2019, San Francisco achieved a 41% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions below 1990 levels, surpassing the target reduction of 25% established by the Board of Supervisors. This success has been driven by the continued replacement of fossil fuel power generation with renewable sources, a cleaner electric grid, increased building energy efficiency, a transition to low-carbon transportation fuels, and a leading zero waste system.
(j) In 2019, the Board of Supervisors unanimously adopted Resolution No. 160-19, declaring a climate emergency in San Francisco and requesting immediate action to address the climate crisis, limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, and eliminate greenhouse gas emissions.
(k) The Department of the Environment’s 2019 report titled “Focus 2030: A Pathway to Net Zero Emissions” shows that achieving accelerated emissions reductions by 2050 will require an ongoing commitment that builds upon and surpasses San Francisco’s past successes and increases resources accordingly to continue to reduce emissions all the way to net zero.
(Added by Ord. 81-08, File No. 071294, App. 5/13/2008; amended by Ord. 117-21, File No. 210563, App. 8/4/2021, Eff. 9/4/2021)
“0-80-100-Roots” means the City’s climate action framework, where “0” refers to a goal of zero waste, “80” refers to a goal of 80% low-carbon trips, “100” refers to a goal of 100% renewable energy, and “Roots” refers to sequestering carbon through natural systems.
“Climate Action Plan” means the document required under Section 904 outlining the specific actions the City will endeavor to take to reduce Greenhouse Gas emissions and offset negative climate impacts.
“Consumption-Based Greenhouse Gas Emissions” means all the Greenhouse Gas emissions associated with producing, transporting, using, and disposing of products and services consumed by a particular community or entity in a given time period, including emissions generated outside the boundaries of the community or the geographic area where the entity is located.
“Greenhouse gas” means any and all of the following gases: carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, and sulfur hexafluoride.
“Hazards and Climate Resilience Plan” means the plan prepared by the Office of Resilience and Capital Planning (ORCP) to increase the resilience of all components that keep the City functioning: buildings, infrastructure, utilities, transportation, communication systems, and the people who live and work in San Francisco.
“Low-Carbon Trips” mean trips into, out of, and within the City’s boundaries which generate zero or low greenhouse gas emissions.
“Net Zero Sector-Based Greenhouse Gas Emissions” means Sector-Based Greenhouse Gas Emissions after first eliminating emissions from fossil fuels and other sources, and then, for each ton of emissions that cannot be eliminated, removing a ton of carbon dioxide equivalent from the atmosphere.
“Renewable Energy” means energy qualifying as renewable pursuant to California Public Resources Code Chapter 8.6, Section 25741(a), and California Public Utilities Code Chapter 2.3, Article 16, Section 399.16(b)(1) or (2), as amended from time to time, or provided by a local publicly owned electric utility subject to California Public Utilities Code Chapter 2.3, Article 16, Section 399.30(j), as amended from time to time.
“Responsible Production and Consumption” means improving how materials and products are extracted, manufactured, delivered, acquired, used, reused, recycled, and disposed of to ensure that the production and consumption of materials and products promote basic human needs, are distributed in a socially equitable manner, and carried out in a way that minimizes environmental impacts over the lifecycle of those materials and products while matching the carrying capacity of the earth’s resources and adding value so as not to jeopardize present and future generations. (See United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 12.) “Lifecycle” means the complete material life of a product, good, or service, including resource extraction, manufacture, assembly, construction, maintenance, transportation, operations or use, and end of life (reuse, recycling/composting, and disposal). “Carrying capacity” means the number or amount of people, plants, and other living organisms that an ecosystem can support indefinitely without causing environmental degradation.
“Sector-Based Greenhouse Gas Emissions” means all of the Greenhouse Gas emissions generated within the geographic boundaries of the City in a given time period.
(Added by Ord. 81-08, File No. 071294, App. 5/13/2008; amended by Ord. 117-21, File No. 210563, App. 8/4/2021, Eff. 9/4/2021)
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