Title
a. Receive a presentation regarding the County Climate Action Plan and Municipal Climate Action Plan and provide direction to staff in regard to the development of these plans.
Report
RECOMMENDATION:
It is recommended that the members of the Board of Supervisors…
a. Receive a presentation regarding the County Climate Action Plan and Municipal Climate Action Plan and provide direction to staff in regard to the development of these plans.
SUMMARY:
The creation of a Community Climate Action and Adaptation Plan and the update to the Municipal Climate Action Plan were launched in May of 2021. Since the launch, staff has hosted 15 stakeholder engagement meetings including a Community Workshop, an Agriculture Focus Group, a Business Focus Group, several Sector working group meetings and Equity Panel meetings. Technical consultants have conducted an emissions inventory and a sequestration analysis to understand emissions sources and sinks within the County. Currently, several sector specific working group meetings are being held to discuss the positives, considerations, and opportunities of different strategies so that a select list of strategies can be quantified for their expected emissions reductions and selected for inclusion in the final plan. Staff expects to release a draft of the Climate Action and Adaptation Plan in the late fall of 2022.
DISCUSSION:
The County of Monterey is working to develop a Community Climate Action and Adaptation Plan (CCAAP) to reduce emissions in the unincorporated area by 40% by 2030 as required by the County General Plan. By working with the community, the CCAAP will lay out strategies that will achieve the emissions reductions goals, and that fit the needs of the local community. If properly developed, a CCAAP can achieve objectives that go far beyond reducing emissions, to things like green jobs and workforce development, public health and safety, infrastructure development and protection, and improved prospects for youth and minorities.
The County’s inventory for the CCAAP has been developed using ICLEI’s U.S. Community Protocol for Accounting and Reporting of Greenhouse Gas Emissions which provides methodologies and best practices to help local governments measure and report the emissions associated with their communities. In the interest of recognizing the ability of our natural and working lands to sequester carbon and create carbon sinks, the County has undertaken a sequestration analysis as well. While the inventory of emissions sources is discrete, relatively certain, and represents only those sources that the County has authority over, the sequestration analysis includes all lands in the County regardless of ownership and County influence. In addition, the sequestration analysis is less certain, higher level, and is primarily influenced by natural events over which the County has limited jurisdictional control. Nevertheless, the data associated with sequestration is important to begin to consider, refine, and track. Still, staff cautions comparing the emissions sources to the emissions sinks at the level in which they are being presented today because it is not a straightforward comparison.
Based on the modeling conducted, community activities generated approximately 1,101,405 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MTCO2e) in 2019. The largest emissions-generating sectors include agriculture, on-road transportation, and nonresidential building energy consumption This inventory is based on the year 2019 since 2020 was considered an odd year and 2019 data was more readily available. The inventory breakdown is as follows:
• On-Road Transportation - 44%, 479,174 MTCO2e
• Agriculture - 24%, 266,917 MTCO2e
• Nonresidential Building Energy- 15%, 170,639 MTCO2e
• Residential Building Energy- 7%, 81,750 MTCO2e
• Solid Waste- 6% 69,724 MTCO2e.
• Off-Road Vehicles and Equipment- 2%, 17,616 MTCO2e
• Wastewater Treatment - 1% 15,586 MTCO2e
• Water Supply- 0%, 0 MTCO2e
For the Municipal Climate Action Plan update, the County’s municipal operations generated approximately 28,634 MTCO2e in 2019. The employee commute, buildings and facilities, and vehicle fleet sectors generated nearly all municipal operations GHG emissions, accounting for approximately 97 percent of total emissions. The inventory breakdown is as follows:
• Employee Commute- 50%, 14,501 MTCO2e
• Buildings and Facilities- 28%, 8,075 MTCO2e
• Vehicle Fleet- 18%, 5,072 MTCO2e
• Solid Waste- 2%, 600 MTCO2e
• Wastewater Treatment- 1%, 318 MTCO2e
• Water Supply - <1%, 68 MTCO2e
• Streetlights and Traffic Signals- <1%, 1 MTCO2e
Unlike the CCAAP, the County has already adopted a Municipal Climate Action Plan to reduce emissions from its operations, so this inventory can be compared to the previous inventory to show a reduction in emissions of 14.6%. Significant reductions can be achieved through continued telecommuting, electrification of the County fleet and decarbonization of our County buildings. The County has been awarded a grant from Central Coast Community Energy to create a decarbonization framework for County buildings and is exploring opportunities to monetize decarbonization through the Metered Energy Efficiency Transition Structure. In addition, staff has developed a Fleet Electrification Policy that mirrors the State’s Advanced Clean Fleets Regulations and will help the County to reduce its emissions from its vehicles.
The sequestration analysis indicates that at a minimum, the county is sequestering a minimum estimate of annual carbon sequestration by vegetation and soils on natural and working lands in the county is approximately 444,779 Metric tons of carbon per year (MT C/year). Maximum annual carbon sequestration is estimated to be approximately 313,208,553 MT C/year. This range is due to the variations in weather as well as in models available to make estimations. Sequestration numbers are derived by applying an emissions factor to each land cover type (i.e., forests, grasslands, wetlands, etc.) and multiplying the acreage in the county by that emissions factor. The results show that the majority of carbon being sequestered annually is in our forests, and our grasslands have the most variability in whether they sequester or emit carbon based on various factors like weather. This ability of our natural and working lands to sequester carbon points to the inclusion of strategies within the CCAAP that would conserve and enhance these spaces to increase the potential for future sequestration. However, it is important to understand that carbon sequestered in one year can easily be released in subsequent years and that sequestration is not usually permanent, but rather part of a cycle. Therefore, the ability to mitigate emissions sources with sequestration activities may be somewhat limited despite the enormous potential.
In line with the Sustainability Program plan for stakeholder engagement, Phase 1 of stakeholder engagement has been completed and Phase 2 has begun. Phase 1 consisted of the visioning and education phase of stakeholder engagement where the draft GHG inventory was shared with community members, businesses, industry associations, and nonprofits. Translation was provided for the community workshop and for materials concerning the community workshop so as to be able to engage with non-native English-speaking residents. More than 280 stakeholders were engaged through in-depth discussion and activities. Recordings of these meetings and meeting summaries are located on the County Climate Action Webpage: montereyclimateaction.konveio.com
During Phase 1, concerns were raised by the Agricultural industry, and especially the Cattle industry regarding the emission associated with cattle in the County. By working with the industry, the UC Cooperative Extension and the Agricultural Commissioner’s office to explain methodology, underlying data, and calculations, changes were made to the inventory to better reflect the duration of time cattle spend in the County. Other agricultural data, including fertilizer application rates, was verified by the UC Cooperative Extension. During this review and collaboration, the County proposed hosting a series of workshops with the agricultural industry in coordination with the Marine Sanctuary Foundation to share out the County’s CCAAP goals and do discuss carbon sequestration in our natural and working lands. Two workshops have been hosted so far and the third is planned for the end of September.
During Phase 2 of stakeholder engagement, community members have been invited to submit ideas for strategies for emissions reductions and discuss the positives, negatives, and opportunities of those strategies. Positive aspects of strategies include things like reduced cost of energy, increased grid reliability, high ability to reduce emissions, and improved health outcomes as a result of the implementation of the strategy. Common themes that have emerged as high priority strategies included adoption of a building decarbonization ordinance, regenerative agriculture, alignment with other regulatory agencies, transit-oriented development and electric vehicles, incentivizing innovation, local green jobs, and consideration of costs to disadvantaged communities in the development of strategies.
Stakeholders were also able to submit questions to the Climate Action Plan inbox and these questions will be logged and available to the public for viewing on the County sustainability webpage. Staff is working to provide a transparent process for developing the CCAAP by providing as much opportunity for interaction as possible with community members, outlining methodologies and reviewing data with community members, and providing summaries of engagement in public meetings.
Staff asks that the Supervisors consider the information presented and discuss the implications for the development of a CEQA-qualified Climate Action Plan and an update to the County Municipal Climate Action Plan.
OTHER AGENCY INVOLVEMENT:
OES, HCD, Env. Health, PWFP
FINANCING:
There is no financial impact from receiving this report.
BOARD OF SUPERVISORS STRATEGIC INITIATIVES:
__Economic Development
_X_ Administration
_X_Health & Human Services
_X_ Infrastructure
__Public Safety
Prepared by: Ashley Paulsworth, Sustainability
Approved by: Nicholas E. Chiulos, ACAO