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New report by independent land use and transportation expert casts doubt on county's Climate Action Plan

SAN DIEGO – The Cleveland National Forest Foundation released a new report, Feb. 13 that indicates San Diego County’s draft Climate Action Plan fails to include sufficient realistic measures to reduce enough county-generated greenhouse gas emissions to meet state mandates. State measures, including Assembly Bill 32 and Senate Bill 375, require every city and county in the state to develop detailed plans to curb such emission in the effort to mitigate the worst effects of climate change. The board of supervisors considered whether to approve the draft plan at its Feb. 14 meeting. San Diego County’s first Climate Action Plan, which was approved by the board in 2012, was rejected by the courts as inadequate.

The report, prepared by Norm Marshall of Smart Mobility on behalf of the Cleveland National Forest Foundation, finds significant flaws in the methodology used by San Diego County to estimate the degree to which the 2018 CAP would reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The draft CAP is intended to serve as a roadmap for the county to meet state-mandated emissions reduction targets. According to the report, the CAP is intended to reduce emissions in the unincorporated area of the county relative to 2014 levels by 2 percent in 2020, 40 percent by 2030 and 77 percent by 2050.

“San Diego County has a chance to get on the right side of history when it comes to climate change mitigation,” Jack Shu, president of the Cleveland National Forest Foundation, which commissioned the report, said.“The CAP that will go before the board at tomorrow’s meeting relies on magical thinking and best-case scenarios without taking any serious steps to reduce locally-generated greenhouse gas emissions. That’s simply unacceptable.”

Among other significant findings, the “Review of the San Diego County Climate Action Plan Transportation and Land Use Component” said that the CAP relies too heavily on carbon offset credits to reach its 2030 reduction targets and fails wholesale to make any plans for additional reductions that will be required by 2050. Further, the CAP fails to account for land use impacts within its control – such as General Plan Amendments that grant ad hoc approval for sprawl-style developments – and ignores the impacts of induced travel from planned expanded roadway capacity.

The CAP also neglects to call for substantial investments in transit like those seen in other metro areas around the state, including Los Angeles and the Bay Area. Perhaps most significantly, it fails to even consider the relationship between land use planning, investments in transit and the role of car travel in regional greenhouse gas emissions – even though that sector produces 45 percent of current emissions generated in the unincorporated parts of San Diego County. Instead, the draft CAP relies on small-scale, individual actions like increasing homeowner uptake of solar power and diverting more waste from county landfills.

“Unfortunately, this draft CAP is par for the course when it comes to addressing climate change in San Diego County,” Jana Clark, who also sits on the board of the Cleveland National Forest Foundation, said. “Extreme drought and massive wildfires have become commonplace. Sea level rise looms. And yet our county leaders are satisfied by doing the equivalent of rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic instead of setting us on a new course to avoid the iceberg altogether.”

The new report released recently indicates that San Diego County’s CAP could be amended to deal with land use and transportation, including public transit, in a substantial way. If such updates were made to the plan, it is feasible that the county could reach its 2030 emissions reduction target without relying on a carbon offset program and would put the county on a realistic path toward the more stringent 2050 regional target.

To receive a copy of the report, or to speak with representatives of the Cleveland National Forest Foundation, contact Nina Erlich-Williams at [email protected] or (510) 336-9566.

 

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