Belmont has made progress on its climate goals over the last eight years, but court rulings, new legislation and uncertain federal funding are forcing the city to get creative on how it achieves ambitious state goals by 2030.
Per California’s Senate Bill 32, cities are expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 40% less than 1990 levels by 2030. Like many cities, it’s not likely Belmont will achieve that target, however, it’s still made progress in cutting emissions overall. According to a recent staff report, Belmont’s greenhouse gas emissions have been reduced by 28% between 2005 and 2023 and exceeded its 2020 target.
“From 2005, we’ve made some really significant improvements. A lot of that is due to electricity going from fossil fuel sources to renewable sources,” Ryan Gardner, director of climate action and decarbonization at Rincon Consultants, said. “There was a 95% reduction in electricity emissions from 2005 to 2023. Solid waste also went down significantly, by 41%.”
Emissions from on-road transportation in Belmont — which represents the largest source of emissions in the city — also decreased by 15%, largely attributable to more efficient car technology and higher adoption of electric vehicles and hybrids, Gardner added.
The city adopted a climate action plan in 2017, and, since then, several initiatives and policies have proved successful in the GHG reduction. Belmont is part of a plan with Peninsula Clean Energy — the county’s public electricity provider — that provides its municipal facilities with fully renewable electricity. Bike lane improvement projects and the implementation of LED street lights and building retrofits were also identified as factors in the emissions reductions.
However, progress has slowed, with “minimal emissions reductions “occurring between 2021 and 2023, the staff report added. Over the last several years, most jurisdictions in San Mateo County, including Belmont, have baked all-electric standards into their energy codes for new buildings. They are sometimes referred to as reach codes as they go beyond state-level mandates.
But the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals finalized a decision last year that led many cities, including Belmont, to suspend their reach codes to avoid legal challenges. And more recently, Assembly Bill 130 was recently signed into law this summer, which prohibits jurisdictions from passing new reach codes until 2031.
“That is a potential challenge for us as we look for ways to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from that 40% emissions that is existing natural gas usage,” Gardner said. “We’re also just in really uncertain times about the future of federal incentives, with things like the Inflation Reduction Act that was providing tens of thousands of dollars to homeowners and building owners to do retrofits and EV incentives.”
Still, the state’s new building code goes into effect at the beginning of next year, which heavily favors all-electric construction. Gardner added that regardless of federal actions, the state is likely to fill in much of the funding gaps to meet climate goals.
The city is working on updating its 2017 plan, with the council tentatively planning for adoption in fall 2026.
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.