19E - GREENHOUSE GAS INVENTORY AND CLIMATE ACTION PLAN

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Report on GHG Inventory and CAP Process March 5, 2012 Page 2 of 3 The purpose of the CAP is to reduce GHG emissions in both municipal operations and in the community. In addition, an Environmental Impact Report will be prepared that will streamline future development projects. Developers will have the CAP to refer to regarding mitigating project emissions and thus will avoid a separate mitigation review. Projects or measures identified in the CAP will also benefit non - development related projects by strategically positioning them as "shovel ready," especially those that are grant funded. Staff completed a Request for Proposal process to hire consultants to develop a GHG inventory and CAP. ICLEI and their subcontractors were chosen from an initial field of ten teams of proposers. The team is comprised of industry leaders in preparing these types of studies. In addition, a CAP Steering Committee has been developed to steer the effort and is comprised of staff from six City agencies and the City's Energy and Sustainability Consultant. They provide ongoing input on the process, including the community and selected stakeholders and feedback on emissions reduction measures. The first step was to identify the base year for data collection. The base year, 2008, is the earliest year with complete data and it is from this year that the GHG emissions forecast begins. The data gathering included energy used from utilities such as SCE and Southern California Gas, transportation information such as employee vehicle miles travelled and public transportation impacts, water used and pumped and solid waste disposed. The ICLEI team will convert the data collected to quantify the GHG emissions: • Carbon dioxide is the most common GHG and comes from the burning of fossil fuels (oil, natural gas, and coal), solid waste, trees and wood products. • Methane is emitted during the production and transport of coal, natural gas, and oil. Methane emissions also result from livestock and other agricultural practices and by the decay of organic waste in municipal solid waste landfills. • Nitrous oxide is emitted during agricultural and industrial activities, as well as during combustion of fossil fuels and solid waste • Fluorinated gases: Hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, and sulfur hexafluoride are synthetic, powerful greenhouse gases that are emitted from a variety of industrial processes. The CAP will provide a comprehensive listing of programs with associated costs and provide an implementation and monitoring plan for reducing GHG emissions. The objective is to identify measures that are supported and implementable. 19E -2