Title
Provide Comment on the Draft Climate Action and Resiliency Plan Update
Body
To: Honorable Chair and Members of the Recreation and Park Commission
From: Amy Wooldridge, Recreation and Parks Director
Re: Provide Comment on the Draft Climate Action and Resiliency Plan Update
BACKGROUND
Alameda is expected to face significant challenge in the coming years due to a changing climate. This means preparing for more frequent episodes of unhealthy air quality from wildfires, rising sea levels, more intense winter rain/wind storms, a rise in groundwater levels and longer, deeper droughts with impacts to transportation, power, communications, health, personal property, housing supply, and the economy, among others.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports that human behavior- particularly burning fossil fuels-accelerates climate change by releasing harmful greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The severity of predicted climate change scenarios are explicitly linked to global trajectories of GHG emissions. If emissions don’t decrease, and if Alameda does not prepare for sea level rise and more intense storms, many parts of Alameda will see frequent flooding in the near future, and some parts could be permanently underwater by mid-century.
Building on prior efforts, the CARP provides a roadmap for reducing Alameda’s GHG emissions and becoming more resilient through a number of strategies. The CARP updates and expands the scope of the City’s 2008 Local Action Plan for Climate Protection by adopting an integrated approach consisting of both adaptation and GHG reduction.
The 2008 Local Action Plan set a goal of reducing Alameda’s GHG emissions 25% below 2005 levels by 2020. Current emissions projections indicate that the City will have reduced GHG emissions by an estimated 23% by 2020. This is mostly the result of Alameda Municipal Power’s (AMP’s) shift to 100 percent clean electricity, which effectively eliminates Alameda’s GHG emissions from electricity consumption. In addition, Alameda’s GHG emissions from waste were cut almost in half due to the success of the Zero Waste Implementation Plan and its Update, and there was a steady downtick in vehicle miles traveled (VMT) from passenger cars. Alamedans’ investment-with AMP’s help-in the energy efficiency of their homes and businesses also played an important role.
Beginning in 2020, with AMP’s delivery of 100 percent clean electricity, almost 70 percent of Alameda’s annual GHG emissions will come from the transportation sector, with the remaining 30 percent largely coming from natural gas use in buildings. To reduce emissions from transportation, Alamedans need to shift from cars to biking and transit, and from fossil fuel-powered vehicles to electricity-powered vehicles. Land use and housing can play an important role in reducing car use, and development requirements can facilitate adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) by increasing the availability of EV chargers. Codes and requirements related to buildings can also catalyze a shift from natural gas to electricity use in buildings, reducing emission from the building sector.
To develop Alameda’s draft CARP, the Public Works Department contracted with Eastern Research Group, Inc. The development process took approximately one year and included significant collaboration among Alameda staff, community members, and outside subject matter experts. To date, Alamedans provided input on the CARP through a 2018 community survey, multiple community events, and two public input sessions. The draft climate action plan that is now available for public comment incorporates hundreds of suggestions, concerns, and questions that community members offered over the past year and a half.
Staff is seeking input on the CARP from various boards and commissions in May and June, and proposing adoption by the City Council on July 16.
DISCUSSION
The CARP outlines a path to achieve eight targeted goals:
1. Reduce GHG emissions 50% below 2005 levels by 2030 and 80% below 2005 levels by 2050.
2. Protect assets from sea level rise and storm surges, plan future land use to avoid impacts and enhance shoreline habitat to mitigate impacts.
3. Increase resiliency and capacity of the stormwater system to prevent flooding of assets during extreme precipitation events.
4. Reduce water consumption and increase drought-resistant landscaping.
5. Reduce heat island effect and protect vulnerable populations from heat impacts during heat waves.
6. Protect public health from smoke impacts during wildfire events, especially vulnerable populations.
7. Ensure that building and infrastructure retrofits and new design standards at high risk of liquefaction consider both seismic risk and sea level rise.
8. Develop financial and human resources and increase transparency, community engagement, social resilience and support for effective CARP implementation.
The CARP recommends specific GHG emissions reduction strategies in the following areas: Transportation, Land Use and Housing, Energy and Buildings, and Carbon Sequestration. The recommended actions in the CARP are in addition to already committed actions in the Transportation Choices Plan, Master Street Tree Plan and Zero Waste Implementation Plan.
There are three ways to reduce emissions from the transportation sector: mode shift, alternative fuel use, and less frequent travel. A complete list of specific GHG reductions actions related to transportation are in tables 3-4 and 3-5 of the plan. A ban on gas powered leaf blowers and converting the light-duty portion of the City’s vehicle fleet to electric vehicles will directly impact Recreation and Parks operations.
With Alameda Municipal Power providing 100 percent clean electricity beginning in 2020, Alameda’s GHG emissions from the building sector will come primarily from natural gas consumption. Accordingly, the CARP’s recommended new actions for the building sector focus on reducing GHG emissions related to natural gas use in buildings. See Table 3-6 of the plans for specific actions.
In addition to halting the release of new emissions into the atmosphere, an essential part of the global strategy for addressing climate change is drawing down carbon from the atmosphere. New reduction actions related to carbon sequestration in Alameda are included in table 3-7 of the plan. ARPD plays a direct role in meeting the recommended expansion of a healthy urban forest and the application of compost in Alameda’s parks and open spaces
Other actions are included in the plan that do not have a corresponding percent reduction in emissions but are no less important. An example includes encouraging urban farming and Climate Victory Gardens as a means of sequestration and resiliency (e.g., create rooftop and vertical gardens, convert vacant lots to community gardens) and partnering with Alameda Backyard Growers and other community-based gardening organizations. Co-benefits include distributing surplus organic food to low-income residents via food banks.
The CARP conducted a vulnerability assessment to climate hazards. The vulnerability assessment considered vulnerabilities that are broadly relevant throughout the city to identify adaptation strategies that can be broadly applied within each sector. The following sectors were evaluated:
• Buildings
• Critical services
• Land use
• Shoreline and natural areas;
• Transportation
• Contaminated lands and waste
• Utilities
• Public health and welfare.
Given Alameda’s unique vulnerability to sea level rise and flooding, the CARP identified 11 location-based priority flooding, as those assets or areas exposed to flooding risk soonest and with greatest consequence. Many of these are shoreline areas with public access: Crown Memorial State Beach, Towata Park, Model Airplane Field, Eastshore Drive Public Pathways, and Veterans Court. A complete list of the locations with near, mid and long terms strategies are included in the plan.
Climate mitigation and adaptation, by their nature, require solutions that extend beyond city boundaries. Alameda must continue to partner on adaptation with key stakeholders, including, but not limited to, Caltrans, East Bay Regional Park District, Port of Oakland, East Bay Municipal Utility District, Pacific Gas & Electric, AT&T, and other telecommunications.
It is also in Alameda’s interest to track the evolving landscape of state, regional, and county governance structures around GHG reduction and climate adaptation and to seek leadership opportunities to help shape those structures and policies. For example, creation of a regional sea level rise governing body could influence the direction of local shoreline adaptation projects.
FINANCIAL IMPACT
The CARP does not authorize expenditure of any City funds. However, the CARP suggests that, if fully implemented, the City would likely require an additional 8 full time employees, one or more of which would work to implement recommendations related to transportation. If the CARP is adopted, City staff will return to City Council with recommendations for how to implement the strategies laid out in the CARP, and at that time will ask for funds to be allocated.
The economic analysis in the CARP suggests that adaptation strategies are a good investment. Even when using conservative assumptions and quantifying the value of only buildings, property and infrastructure, the benefit to cost ratio is at least 3.5 to 1 in all scenarios assessed, suggesting that every dollar spent on prevention avoids at least $3.50 in economic losses. Other benefits to consider, which make the benefit-cost ratio even higher (more favorable), are commerce disruption and loss of non-market benefits associated with Crown Beach and other parks, as well as other non-monetized benefits such as improved safety for people within the city.
RECOMMENDATION
Provide Comment on the Draft Climate Action and Resiliency Plan Update
Respectfully submitted,
Amy Wooldridge, Recreation and Parks Director
Exhibits:
1. Alameda’s Draft Climate Action and Resiliency Plan
2. Alameda’s Draft Climate Action and Resiliency Plan Appendices