San Mateo details Climate Action Plan progress

A June 6 City Council meeting highlighted the city and community’s work to reduce the city’s carbon footprint and be good environmental stewards. Over the past few years, the city has implemented several new programs and initiatives to address state and local environmental goals. The work is part of its 2020 Climate Action Plan, which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions around building electrification, renewable energy, energy efficiency, transportation, water and equipment. The city and community work together to reduce the city’s carbon footprint and be good environmental stewards. Over the past few years, the city has implemented several new programs and initiatives, like installing 13 electric vehicle charging ports at the downtown Main Street Garage, launching an electric leaf blower rebate program in July 2021, and adopting an ordinance requiring restaurants to use compostable products instead of plastic disposables. The city has also adopted stricter waste requirements, while future city-owned housing sites like Kiku Crossing will be all-electric.

In the coming year, the council wants to prioritize decarbonizing buildings, adopting new building reach codes and addressing gas leaf blower use.

Residents are also displaying increased interest in these programs. All-electric construction permit applications in 2021 were 253, compared to 196 in 2020. Electric leaf blower rebates saw 25 residents and five commercial businesses use the city program. The city issued 53 electric vehicle charging permits in 2021, compared to 25 in 2020.

Mayor Rick Bonilla called for increased efforts from all to meet goals set by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the United Nations body responsible for assessing climate change.

“We are not going to do it by being calm, by sitting still, but we need to be out front saying we have to make this change in a large and more emphatic way,” Bonilla said.

Several public speakers encouraged the city to continue policies and programs to save the climate. Diane Bailey, executive director with nonprofit environmental group Menlo Spark, spoke during public comment and thanked San Mateo officials for their work but urged the city to phase out fossil fuel use through stricter reach codes. In 2020, the city adopted a reach code running through 2022, requiring residential and office buildings to be constructed all-electric.

“It’s really essential that the city move forward with another reach code this year that not only renews the commitment to avoid methane gas usage in new construction but also curtails methane gas use as heating and appliances are replaced in existing homes and buildings,” Bailey said.

Wendy Chou, a San Mateo resident and member of the volunteer group San Mateo Climate Action Team, called on quicker and more substantial changes around reach codes, electric vehicles and renewable energy.

“We need to put policies and plans in place to reduce greenhouse gases sooner at a greater scale than what is currently proposed in the city’s climate action plan,” Chou said.

curtis@smdailyjournal.com

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