CITY OF SANTA MONICA CLIMATE ACTION & ADAPTATION PLAN A 2030 COMMUNITY PLAN TO REDUCE CARBON EMISSIONS & BECOME CLIMATE RESILIENT FINAL DRAFT ADOPTED MAY 2019 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS CITY COUNCIL DISABILITIES COMMISSION Gleam Davis , Mayor Marielle Krisel, Chair Terry O’Day, Mayor Pro Tempore Nanci Linke-Ellis, Vice Chair Ana Maria Jara Glenda Berg Kevin McKeown Dee Capelli Greg Morena June Carol Hagan, PhD Sue Himmelrich Thomas John Hill Ted Winterer Christy Hobart Pam O'Connor (1994-2018) Kathryn Kosmeya-Dodge Lauri Ringer TASK FORCE ON THE ENVIRONMENT Kelly S. Siegel Mark Gold, Chair Delbert A Whetter, JD, MBA Erik Neandross, Vice Chair Garen Baghdasarian STEERING COMMITTEE & PARTNERS Robert Lempert Breeze BikeShare Susan Mearns Chamber of Commerce David Pettit Climate Action Santa Monica ClimateResolve PLANNING COMMISSION Community Corporation of Santa Monica Mario Fonda-Bonardi, Chair County of Los Angeles Leslie Lambert, Vice Chair EcoMotion Amy Nancy Anderson Heal the Bay Nina Fresco Los Angeles Regional Collaborative for Climate Shawn Landres Action & Sustainability Richard McKinnon Mid-City Neighbors Jason Parry Northeast Neighbors North of Montana Association URBAN FOREST TASK FORCE Office of Representative Richard Bloom Grace Sadye Phillips, Chair Office of Senator Ben Allen Thomas Cleys, Vice Chair RAND Hans Baumann Southern California Association of Governments Robin Carmichael Santa Monica College Gloria Garvin Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Armando Martinez Santa Monica Travel & Tourism Ellis Raskin Southern California Edison Southern California Gas Company COMMISSION FOR THE SENIOR Southern California Regional Energy Network SustainableWorks COMMUNITY The Energy Coalition Barry Engelman, Chair UCLA Luskin Center for Policy Innovation Kathryn G. Kietzman, Vice Chair USC Sea Grant Leigh Alan Brumberg Barbara Jane Browning Elliot Goldberg Paula Fern Lynn Strother Willa Faye Wells Credit: Justin Han ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS PRIMARY AUTHOR PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT Garrett Wong, Sr. Sustainability Analyst Susan Cline, Director Delana Gbemekama, Communications & Marketing Coordinator OFFICE OF SUSTAINABILITY & Sergio Ramirez, Principal Administrative Analyst THE ENVIRONMENT Chris Celsi, Resource Recovery & Recycling Manager Dean Kubani, Chief Sustainability Officer Chris Dishlip, Facilities Maintenance Manager, Acting City Shannon Parry, Sustainability Administrator Architect Ariana Vito Alex Nazarchuk, Water Resources Manager Drew Lowell-Johnstone Matthew Wells, Public Landscape Manager James Velez-Conway Rick Valte, City Engineer Andrew Basmajian Amanda Grossman PLANNING & COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT Karl Bruskotter Thomas Fleming DEPARTMENT Francie Stefan, Mobility Manager Karina Sandique Colleen Stoll Salvador Gonzalez Jing Yeo, Planning Manager Neal Shapiro Liz Bar-El Russell Ackerman Cary Fukui Angela Von Slomski Peter James Jennifer Simmons Rachel Kwok Jessica Hanna Roxanne Tanemori CIVICSPARK FELLOWS Mikhael Matossian (15/16) PHOTO CREDITS Cover: City of Santa Monica. Pg. 2: Eric Staudenmaier, Stefan Delia Tyrell (16/17) Corbel, Justin Han, Iwan Baan for Community Corporation Samantha Rosenbaum (16/17) of Santa Monica, City of Santa Monica. Pg 5: Downtown Michael Consunji (17/18) Santa Monica, Pg 6: William Short. Pg 10: William Short; Pg Maansi Shah (17/18) 12: Kristina Sado, Justin Han.; Pg 13: City of Santa Monica, Yuval Pearl (18/19) Gabor Ekecs, WeWork. Pg 17: City of Santa Monica; Pg 20: Iwan Baan for Community Corporation of Santa Monica; Pg CONSULTANTS 25: Terra24. Pg 29: Kristina Sado; Pg 35: City of Santa Monica; DNV-GL Pg 41: Santa Monica Daily Press. Pg 42: Justin Han. Pg 46: Global Green City of Santa Monica; Pg. 50: Justin Han. Pg. 51: City of Santa Raimi & Associates Monica. Pg. 53: Kristina Sado; Pg. 54: Climate Cents. Pg 57: Fehr & Peers Justin Han. Pg. 58: Justin Han, Pg. 55: City of Santa Monica Credit: William Short OF 6 LETTER FROM THE MAYOR 7 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 9 INTRODUCTION 10 OUR CLIMATE ACTION VISION 11 CLIMATE LEADERSHIP 12 DEVELOPING THE PLAN TABLE 13 COMMUNITY THEMES 14 PATHWAY TO CARBON NEUTRALITY 16 PLAN AT A GLANCE 17 HOW TO READ THE PLAN 19 CLIMATE ACTION ZERO NET CARBON BUILDINGS 20 CONTENTS 25 ZERO WASTE 29 SUSTAINABLE MOBILITY 35 CLIMATE ADAPTATION 36 CLIMATE CHANGE IN SANTA MONICA 42 CLIMATE READY COMMUNITY 46 WATER SELF-SUFFICIENCY 50 COASTAL FLOODING PREPAREDNESS 53 LOW CARBON FOOD & ECOSYSTEMS 58 IMPLEMENTING THE PLAN 63 CONCLUSION LETTER FROM THE MAYOR In recent years, California has experienced historic drought, higher average temperatures, heat waves, and devastating wildfires and mudslides. Climate change is no longer a threat in a distant future. It is here now. And it will get worse unless we act. Climate change is a global issue that requires all governments to act, no matter their size. Unfortunately, it appears that not every level of government recognizes the problem or is willing to act on it. Accordingly, cities have emerged as front-line leaders in the fight against climate change. Santa Monica has long been a leader in promoting sustainability and tackling climate change. In 2016, we reduced our carbon emissions 20% below 1990 levels, a goal the State of California seeks to achieve by 2020. We have the tools to achieve carbon neutrality and meet the Paris Climate Agreement by 2050 or sooner, and still our toolkit is expanding. New developments in the energy and mobility industries are pushing the City to innovate and adapt to these new opportunities which will help Santa Monica reach its goals. This Climate Action & Adaptation Plan looks ahead to the ambitious goals and transformation we need to achieve and lays the groundwork for embracing innovation and disruption. By achieving the objectives laid out in the plan, we will achieve an 80% reduction in our emissions below 1990 levels by 2030. This will give us momentum to achieve carbon neutrality well before 2050. In addition to reducing emissions, we also recognize the need to adjust to our changing climate and prepare for more frequent and intense climate change impacts. This plan also provides a pathway to enhance our community resilience and infrastructure to be climate ready. The next few years are critical to reducing our carbon emissions so we can avoid the worst climate change impacts. This transformation will disrupt the status quo and require community investment in the goal and a willingness to change behaviors. This plan is a call to action for our government, businesses, and residents. Great challenges offer great opportunities. We must be bold, ambitious, and daring. We know that this transition to a carbon-free future will improve our quality of life, our community wellbeing, and our prosperity. We invite you to join us and participate in this communitywide effort. GLEAM DAVIS, MAYOR 6 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Cities are on the front lines when it comes to climate change. Cities are also leading the world in reducing SANTA MONICA'S PATH TO CARBON NEUTRALITY ) carbon emissions through aggressive policies and Observed Emissions adoption of clean technologies. 20% below 1990 levels MMtCo2e Santa Monica’s Climate Action & Adaptation Plan (Plan) ( builds off of its success and legacy as a sustainable community to move closer to carbon neutrality, by Climate Action Reductions Emissions establishing an interim goal of reducing carbon emissions 80% below 1990 levels by 2030. 80% below 1990 levels The Plan is the product of collaboration and engagement with the public, businesses, stakeholder groups, and Carbon subject matter experts from academia, industry and Annual interdepartmental staff representatives. It provides an ambitious, community-focused platform to advance policies that enhance quality of life and wellbeing, Between 1990 and 2015, Santa Monica reduced its embrace smart city innovation and improve social equity. emissions by 276,324 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents (mtCO2e) to achieve 20% below 1990 levels at The Plan focuses on eight objectives in three sectors to a rate of 0.8% per year. In order to achieve an 80% reduce emissions: Zero Net Carbon Buildings, Zero Waste reduction by 2030, Santa Monica would need to reduce and Sustainable Mobility. Early action is required to avoid total emissions by about 929,693 mtCO2e, at a rate of over significant cost and social and environmental risks to our 4% per year, significantly increasing the scale and speed community. In addition to California's policies, like the of reductions. This 'bending of the carbon curve' is Low Carbon Fuel Standard and the Renewable Portfolio essential to meeting the Paris Climate Agreement and Standard, these actions are estimated to achieve the avoiding worsened climate change impacts. Plan's estimated 80% reduction. The Plan provides a roadmap to advance the goals across programmatic and departmental lines. In many cases, the STATE POLICIES 50% of total reductions Renewable Portfolio Standard actions described also require new community and Low Carbon Fuel Standard regional partnerships to develop and test new strategies Building Energy Standards that will build on Santa Monica’s leadership role in sustainability and innovation. These key actions identify ZERO NET CARBON BUILDINGS 21% of total reductions what can be accomplished within the next decade to Achieve 100% renewable grid electricity continue progress toward the goal of achieving carbon Install 100 MW of local solar energy neutrality by 2050 or sooner. Reduce fossil fuel use 20% in existing buildings Discourage fossil fuels in new buildings ZERO WASTE