Climate Action Plan Document

The impacts of climate change today require bold action to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and ensure a healthy and livable future for all. As part of the City’s commitment to creating a Sustainable Santa Clara, the City established a Climate Action Plan in 2013.

Following an over two years long community engagement process and development of a comprehensive upgrade to the City’s Climate Action Plan, the Public Draft Climate Action Plan document was made available for public comment from August 19 to September 15, 2021, the City Council unanimously adopted the Climate Action Plan 2022 on June 7, 2022. In developing the strategies, the City considered how actions contribute to social and economic co-benefits like emissions reductions, equity, green jobs, cost savings and others. The CAP document is available at the link below and the Climate Action Plan Update documents and the community outreach are available under Climate Action Plan Update Process.

2022 Climate Action Plan

Proposed Targets:

Near Term: a 40% reduction in GHG emissions by 2030 (SB32)
Interim: an 80% reduction in GHG emissions by 2035
Long Term: Carbon neutrality no later than 2045 (EO B-55-18)

Strategies and Actions at a Glance - The Five Focus Areas:

The Climate Action Plan 2022 sets new targets for reaching aggressive emissions reductions across five main focus areas:

Buildings & Energy

Transportation & Land Use

Materials & Consumption

Natural Systems & Water Resources

Community Resilience and Wellbeing

Climate Action Plan Update Process

The City of Santa Clara updated its Climate Action Plan (CAP) to align with new State requirements and to assess the City’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The CAP assesses the impacts of state and local actions that have been implemented to reduce greenhouse gases and identifies additional actions to further reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and enhance climate resiliency throughout the City. A consultant team headed by Cascadia Consulting Group had been engaged to support the City in the updating the Climate Action Plan.

Frequently Asked Questions (PDF)

Planning Process Timeline

Following is a graphic depicting the workflow and the timeline of the CAP Update process.

CAP Timeline

Update Process and Hearings

City Council Hearing on June 7, 2022

Staff Report and Attachments, Meeting Minutes

Planning Commission Hearing on April 13, 2022

Planning Commission Study Session #1 held on August 26, 2020

Planning Commission Study Session #2 held on October 14, 2020

Staff Report and Attachments, Meeting Minutes

Planning Commission Study Session #3 held on March 9, 2022

Staff Report and Attachments, Meeting Minutes

City Council Meeting held on March 2, 2021

Staff Report and Attachments, Meeting Minutes

City Council Meeting held on July 13, 2021

Staff Report and Attachments, Meeting Minutes

Community Engagement

The City and the Consultant team developed a community engagement strategy to ensure that citizens and stakeholders participate throughout the Climate Action Plan Update process. Outlined below are the engagement activities that have occurred since the start of the planning process.

Focus Group Interviews

Online Survey #1 (Survey closed July 16, 2020)
During the months of June/July an online survey was conducted to get community's feedback to establish Santa Clara’s CAP priorities. We received nearly 400 survey responses. The document below provides a quick summary and preferences of community response towards the various topics of the survey.
Online Survey Results- Summary

Virtual Community Workshop conducted on July 16, 2020 (Presentation, PDF) A virtual Community Workshop was conducted via zoom to further engage the community in the process. The 38 participants actively engaged in discussions on variety of topics including Land Use and Transportation, Buildings and Energy, Materials and Consumption, Natural systems and Water Resources, Community Resilience and Wellbeing. The document below summarizes the discussions during the workshop.
Community Workshop Summary

Online Survey #2 (Survey closed November 19, 2020)
During the months of October/November a second online survey was conducted to understand the community's level of interest and support for various climate action measures to be included in the updated CAP. We received nearly 500 survey responses. The document below provides a quick summary and preferences of community response towards the various topics of the survey.
Online Survey #2 Results - Summary

Virtual Community Workshop conducted on September 1, 2021 (Presentation, PDF) A virtual Community Workshop was conducted via zoom to provide an overview of the draft CAP and an opportunity for the community to share their thoughts on the initiatives being proposed. The workshop was attended by 25 participants. The meeting recording is available below.
Community Workshop Summary
Chat Transcript
Miro Board

September 1, 2021 Community Workshop recording

Draft Climate Action Plan Document was made available for Public Comments on Konveio, our user friendly, interactive tool where you could post your comments directly in the draft plan, from August 19, 2021 to September 15, 2021. This document, along with a public comment summary, is available in the document library at the end of this page (2021 Draft Climate Action Plan with Public Comments).

Focus Group Interviews (September/October 2021)
Focus group interviews comments summary

New and upcoming engagement activities will be posted on this page as they are scheduled.

New Laws and Requirements

In 2016, the State Legislature passed SB32, which codifies a 2030 GHG emissions reduction target of 40 percent below 1990 levels (where the previous requirement was 20 percent below 1990 levels). In line with new state requirements, the City anticipates the following updates to the CAP:

The City of Santa Clara's current progress towards meeting state GHG emission targets;
An assessment of state and local activities that have been implemented so far to reduce emissions and quantification of the net benefit of these actions to the CAP;
Identification of further actions the City can undertake to further reduce GHG emissions and meet new targets; and
Implementation strategies for meeting new targets.