Final Climate Plan Annual Report for Pasadena to be Unveiled Today

NOTE: The City Council meeting for Monday, May 17 has been canceled — this item, which was to have been considered, will occur at a future meeting. Pasadena Now will keep you updated.

The City Council will receive a report on the city’s Climate Action Plan on Monday.

The Climate Action Plan is a long-term plan to reduce the City’s greenhouse (GHG) emissions and make them consistent with statewide targets established by Executive Order S-3-05, Assembly Bill 32, and Senate Bill 32.

The CAP includes five principal strategies to achieve the City’s GHG reduction goals: Sustainable Mobility and Land Use, Energy Efficiency and Conservation, Water Conservation, Waste Reduction, and Urban Greening. Under these strategies are actions and measures that are constantly monitored and form part of the annual report.

In preparing the 2019 Report, the Planning Department said it coordinated with Pasadena Water and Power (PWP), the Public Works Department and the Transportation Department to collect data on the various performance indicators and actions that each Department is responsible for implementing.

Each of these departments provided progress notes for near-term implementation actions and prioritized each action based on their existing work program and priorities.

In 2018, the annual report identified the status of 13 performance indicators and graded those indicators on the basis of their likelihood of being achieved by 2020.

In a preliminary report, the Planning Department said the City has made significant progress towards the 2020 targets: two performance indicators have been achieved and seven more are likely to be achieved, it said, while four cannot be determined at this time.

“The City experienced a 35-percent reduction in water consumption per capita, exceeding the requirements set forth by SB X7-7 (the state’s Water Conservation Act enacted in 2009),” the report said. “In addition, the target under CAP Measure E-4 (the performance indicator related to electricity use) has been reached as the City reduced approximately 65,000,000 kWh in fossil-fueled energy supply from 2013 levels.”

The report also said the City is on its way to achieving its various transportation mode share targets, with nearly five percent of residents utilizing public transit and approximately eight percent carpooling.

“Moreover, the City is expected to attain the goal of planting 500 new trees by the target year with 493 new public trees already planted by 2019,” the report said.

While most of the performance indicators are likely to be achieved, the report said four indicators need to be monitored closely to determine compliance. These indicators pertain to the goal of acquiring 400 bike share bicycles and installing one bike share station per square mile; achieving a 10-percent transit mode share, which decreased by 4.9 percent for 2019; achieving a 75-percent diversion rate by 2020 for recyclable materials; and significantly reducing organic waste through City-managed programs.

To learn more about the Pasadena Climate Action Plan, visit www.cityofpasadena.net/planning/planning-division/community-planning/climate-action-plan.