What are the proposed climate actions to meet Sonoma’s climate goals?

After years of crafting goals, developing strategies and going back to the drawing board, the Sonoma Climate Action Commission unanimously approved to send its climate action strategies report to the Sonoma City Council.

With the city’s goal to become carbon-neutral by 2030, the Climate Action Commission proposed concrete actions in a 97-page report to reduce and sequester carbon dioxide, electrify transportation and buildings, and enhance green-energy use if enacted.

“I’ve been seeing so many different versions of this document over the years” Climate Action Commission vice chair Tom Conlon said at the Nov. 8 meeting. “Do we continue to deliberate on making a perfect plan or do we try to present something to the city council that, with all of its flaws, is a ready-fire-aim approach to move forward?”

The city of Sonoma emitted approximately 75,085 metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2020, according to the Sonoma Climate Action Commission report. About 66% of these emissions came from transportation, 28% came from buildings and 6% came from solid waste, government operations and water.

Report: Proposed climate action strategies for the city of Sonoma

The commission had not proposed climate actions since its inception in April 2022.

Birthed out of the disbanding of the Community Services and Environment Commission, the Climate Action Commission was formed with the intention of producing actionable strategies for the city to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

“We did rename (the commission) climate action strategies because it’s more about the actions right now, and there is more of a plan needed to reach the 2030 goal,” community development director Jennifer Gates said at the Nov. 8 meeting. “The idea is that we’re setting a baseline, now. We’re looking at these small changes that we could make and starting to measure what that impact could be.”

Climate action drafts have circulated for most of 2023 but had remained in the commission without authorization to move forward.

The commission’s decision to approve the climate action report for the city council Nov. 8 is the most important action in the commission’s brief history.

The commission’s report recommended increased use of electrified transportation and additional electric vehicle charging stations to support that effort. In addition, the report found that “79% of all motor vehicle trips are less than 5 miles” for Sonoma residents, and the commission proposed enhanced bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure to reduce the use of gas-powered vehicles.

For buildings, the commission proposed to conduct outreach to homeowners on energy efficient programs like Sonoma Clean Power’s CleanStart and EverGreen energy efficient programs to reduce natural gas usage, according to the report.

Other strategies include workshops to educate residents on federal subsidies and tax credits for solar panel installation outlined in 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.

Carbon sequestration initiatives, which capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, called for providing free composting services on a quarterly basis, increase the number of planted trees and the creation of a local carbon offset program.

Commissioners hope the City Council will adopt these policies and take a leap toward meeting the city’s 2030 carbon neutral goal.

“It does feel aspirational to meet our goal by 2030,” commissioner Amber Ward said about the report at the Nov. 8 meeting. “Tragically, when this emergency was first issued and the first iteration of this commission began, it would have been a much more attainable goal.”

Earth briefly went 2 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average Nov. 19, according to preliminary data from the England-based Copernicus Climate Change Service which informs the European Union.

The world is on-track to blow past the 1.5-degree Celsius goal outlined in the 2015 Paris Climate Accord. And California is aiming to become carbon neutral by 2045.

Still, Ward believes that moving forward with the climate actions proposed in the report to the city council was imperative to beginning Sonoma’s transition toward a green future.

Conlon agreed with her, adding that the proposed actions may not contain all of the commission’s desires, but those that were proposed are realistic enough to gain support of the council and set a foundation for future climate action.

“We can’t commit to making wildly disruptive or transformative recommendations to the council without having a deeper basis of understanding of what those impacts could be on our city,” Conlon said. “But I do want to be realistic in what we present to the council.”

Contact Chase Hunter at chase.hunter@sonomanews.com and follow @Chase_HunterB on Twitter.