TO: Napa County Climate Action Committee
FROM: Brian D. Bordona, Director of Napa County Planning, Building, & Environmental Services
REPORT BY: Ryan Melendez, Planner II - Sustainability
SUBJECT: December 2024 RCAAP Update: Ascent Presentation on a Draft Greenhouse Gas Reduction Measures and Targets Technical Memorandum
RECOMMENDATION
title
PRESENTATION AND DISCUSSION: REGIONAL CLIMATE ACTION AND ADAPTATION PLAN GREENHOUSE GAS REDUCTION MEASURES AND GHG TARGETS TECHNICAL MEMORANDUM
Staff requests the CAC receive a presentation from Ascent Environmental on the GHG Reduction Measures and Quantification Technical Memo.
body
BACKGROUND
At the July 26th, 2024 CAC meeting Ascent Environmental presented the Draft Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Reduction Framework, Guidelines, and Preliminary GHG Reduction Measures Memo and Matrix. CAC members discussed these measures and provided direction to RCAAP project staff to move forward with cost/funding analyses of the top 10 most impactful measures. The GHG Reduction Measures Memo and accompanying Matrix presented a preliminary list of GHG emission reduction strategies, measures, and actions.
The framework is comprised of strategies, measures, and actions. Strategies serve as high-level methods for reducing GHG emissions in each sector of the GHG Inventory. Within each strategy are measures that include policies, measurable objectives, or other more specific pathways for achieving emissions reductions. In addition, each measure includes actions defining specific activities, implementation programs, projects, or steps that each jurisdiction would take to implement the measures to achieve GHG emissions reduction targets defined in the RCAAP.
The GHG Reduction Memo describes two guideline objectives for developing the GHG reduction measures and implementing actions: (1) ensuring that the measures and actions are consistent with a CEQA-qualified GHG reduction plan; and (2) outlining a more specific set of criteria that evaluates the measures based on their GHG-reduction effectiveness, cost, impact on equity, implementation feasibility, and secondary benefits (e.g., health, air quality).
The CEQA requirements for a GHG Reduction Plan include the following: (a) Identify and analyze the GHG emissions resulting from specific actions or categories of actions anticipated within the geographic area of the RCAAP, and (b) specify measures or groups of measures including performance standards, that substantial evidence demonstrates, if implemented on a project-by-project basis, would collectively achieve the specified emissions reduction level.
Following the discussion and direction from the CAC members and further refinement of the GHG reduction measures and actions from staff, Ascent Environmental has drafted a Greenhouse Gas Reduction Measures and Targets Technical Memorandum (Memo). Of the proposed 46 measures, 18 of them were identified as “quantifiable” measures, meaning their GHG emissions can be measured and tracked over time. The draft Memo explores three possible GHG reduction target pathways for the RCAAP based on locally-adopted resolutions, the State of California’s 2022 Climate Change Scoping Plan, Assembly Bill (AB) 1279, and Senate Bill (SB) 32. The Memo assesses the feasibility of achieving three target pathways based on the potential of measures to reduce emissions and in considering the feasibility of implementation actions.
This Memo reintroduces the Legislative-Adjusted Business as Usual (BAU) emissions forecasts for Napa County and incorporated jurisdiction by emissions sector, or the amount of GHG emissions reductions expected to occur due to federal, state, and regional policies. The emissions remaining after accounting for Legislative-Adjusted BAU emissions represent the amount of emissions the Napa County jurisdictions will need to reduce to meet emissions reduction goals. The Memo then explores the projected emissions reductions associated with the implementation of each measure and demonstrates how the implementation of each measure will allow Napa jurisdictions to meet our climate goals over time.
After completion and adoption of the plan, coordinated implementation efforts by the CAC member jurisdictions will be imperative for meeting climate goals by 2045.
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
ENVIRONMENTAL DETERMINATION: The proposed action is not a project as defined by 14 California Code of Regulations 15378 (State CEQA Guidelines) and therefore CEQA is not applicable.