Status Update and Important Lessons Learned from CAP for other cities and consultants

1. L EAGUE OF CA C ITIES
P LANNER ’ S I NSTITUTE
M ONTEREY, CA
M ARCH 26, 2010
CITY OF IRVINE
DRAFT CLIMATE ACTION PLAN
CHANGING CLIMATE, CHANGING
REGULATIONS: CLIMATE -PROOFING YOUR
COMMUNITY

2. LOCAL GOVERNMENT
CONUNDRUM
 Uncertainty for Project Applicants
 How do they account for GHG
mitigation when a Climate Action Plan
(CAP) is not in place?
 Climate Change must be addressed in
local planning efforts… But how?
 California Environmental Quality Act
 Review of individual project
 Include General Plan Update

3. W HY D O A
C LIMATE A CTION P LAN ?
 Long-standing environmental leadership (1971)
 Signed U.S. Mayor’s Climate Protection
Agreement (2006)
 Protection against litigation from Attorney
General via AB 32 (2006)
 Streamlined CEQA Review (2007)
 Implementation of City’s adopted Energy Plan
(2008)
 Required for EE & Conservation Strategy (2009)

4. 6 M ILESTONE P ROCESS
Leadership
Commitment
Monitor/Evaluate Inventory
Progress Emissions
Implement Climate
Establish Target
Action Plan
Develop Climate
Action Plan

5. I RVINE ’ S P ROCESS
Bring ICLEI* database
down from regional
to Irvine-specific:
Transportation Water Utilities
* ICLEI =International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives

6. SPATIAL ASSESSMENT
PROTOCOL
The CAP will be disaggregated
from the community-wide scale
to 50+ individual planning areas:
Planning area-specific growth
scenarios
Potentially planning area-specific
targets for growth and existing
land use
Planning area specific monitoring
and reporting

7. M AJOR C OMPONENT OF E MISSIONS :
T RANSPORTATION
 At least 40% statewide emissions come from
transportation
 In most So Cal cities, 50-70% of emissions come
from transportation
 Most cities lack agriculture or manufacturing
that contributes to statewide emissions
 VMT has grown and is projected to grow even more
in the future
 Transportation will soon be the #1 fuel user in the
Country

10. R ELATIONSHIP
BETWEEN CAP
AND E NERGY
E FFICIENCY &
C ONSERVATION
B LOCK G RANTS

11. F UNDING
GHG Protocol Development : Approx. $200K
Climate Action Plan: Approx $235K
Climate Action Plan Implementation: Approx $110K
Web-based Monitoring and Verification : Approx. $100K
Total Cost: $645K

12. L ESSONS L EARNED
 Working with Public Works -
Transportation Staff
 Breaking down the technical
details
 Importance of vetting the
analysis, modeling, and the
assumptions that went into the
model
 Applies to Everyone!
 Explaining “Why are we doing a
CAP to begin with?”

13. L ESSONS L EARNED
 Communication & presentation of
materials is Critical!!
 Within the City, external
stakeholders, public education
 This is unlike anything you’ve
done before
 Not legally mandated and no
common standards
 Do by trail and error

14. L ESSONS L EARNED
 A quality inventory is key –
appropriate level of detail
 Don’t have any standard protocols
 Choose the right consultants
 The goal is implementation

15. L ESSONS L EARNED
 Look at the CAP from a
programmatic perspective
 Make sure it is actually
useful for Implementation
 How are you going to fund
these items?