Editor,
On Monday, the San Carlos City Council will consider its “Draft Climate Mitigation and Adaptation Plan.” There are some good carbon reduction and adaptation intentions in the plan, which I have reviewed as a 27-year resident and quasi-expert in this arena.
However, let’s not be fooled by green washing! The San Carlos climate action plan is not enough and not soon enough! We have to treat this climate emergency like the existential threat it is; make this a monthly agenda item and drive the 2050 mitigations to happen before 2030 … which is what the science demands. From the about-to-be published IPCC scientists consensus report of 2021: “Crushing climate impacts to hit sooner than feared: drafter UN report,” June 23, 2021.
Our San Carlos total carbon pollution footprint needs to reduce 80%+ by 2030, not the flat or 25%-ish levels planned for the most parts in this plan. We would do this by accelerating city operations reductions (like converting fleet to EVs), by actively incentivizing electrification of cars/bikes/transit, by future-fitting homes to use heat pumps instead of gas or HVAC/water heating, increasing local solar/storage as a project, etc.
Faster. Sooner. With monthly tracked action measures. The burgeoning costs of the climate emergency in San Carlos will be in the billions of dollars if we don’t both reduce emissions faster/sooner and adapt infrastructure more urgently as a front burner project that the City Council drives actively and transparently. The proposed plan is not enough, not soon enough and risks green washing irrelevance.
Mark Bauhaus
San Carlos
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