Santa Cruz County hosts meeting on climate change action and adaptation – Santa Cruz Sentinel

SANTA CRUZ – Santa Cruz County leaders have scheduled a series of public meetings to detail local plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to environmental changes already occurring.

The public will be treated to an in-depth look at the County’s Climate Change Action and Adaptation Plan, prepared by the Office of Response, Recovery and Resilience and adopted by the Board of Supervisors in 2022, on July 31 from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at the County Administrative Center in Santa Cruz, 701 Ocean Street, 5th floor.

According to a press release from the district, the discussions will include strategies to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, efforts to protect natural resources and mitigate the dangers of climate change.

“This is an opportunity for the community to learn more details about the county’s updated Climate Change Action and Adaptation Plan and to track the county’s progress toward our greenhouse gas emission reduction goals,” said Kris Damhorst, chair of the county’s Environmental Commission, which hosts the meetings.

The plan’s ultimate goal is to reduce the county’s 1990 baseline emissions by 40% no later than 2030, as required by state law. Organizers reported in 2022, months before the plan was updated, that the unincorporated county’s 1990 baseline emissions were about 800,000 tons, meaning emissions needed to be reduced to about 400,000 tons by 2030. By 2022, the county had released about 700,000 tons – more than 200,000 less than its 2030 goal.

According to 2019 statistics published in the climate plan, 51%, or more than 352,500 tons, of emissions in the county’s unincorporated regions come from passenger vehicles. The private natural gas sector follows in second place by a large margin with 15.5%, or about 107,000 tons.

David Reid, director of the county’s climate office, said key strategies to reduce emissions in 2022 include multimodal transportation infrastructure, electric vehicle charging stations, replacing gas water heaters with electric heat pumps and financing opportunities through the Inflation Reduction Act, which will be signed by President Joe Biden in 2022.

The district and the state are working toward being carbon neutral by 2045.

“In the decade since the Board of Supervisors adopted the first climate action strategy, we have seen the direct impacts of climate change in the form of more severe winter storms, extreme heat, poor air quality and wildfires,” Tatiana Brennan, senior administrative analyst with the Office of Response, Recovery and Resilience, said in the release. “The (Climate Action and Adaptation Plan) recognizes the increasing need to prioritize protecting our environment to meet the challenges ahead.”

The county has experienced seven federally declared natural disasters since 2017, including the devastating CZU Lightning Complex fires in 2020 and the widespread destruction from winter storms in 2022-2023 that occurred concurrently with the adoption of the new plan.

In response, the county has requested $250 million in reimbursements from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). However, so far, the county has only received about half of that amount back, creating significant cash flow problems.

When you go

What: Meetings on the Santa Cruz County Climate Action and Adaptation Plan.

When: July 31, 5-7 p.m.

Where: County Government Center, 701 Ocean St., 5th floor in Santa Cruz.