The City of San Luis Obispo is being recognized as a global leader on climate action for a second year in a row.
San Luis Obispo was placed on the “A List” for its leadership on climate action by the Carbon Disclosure Project. The CDP is a non-profit charity that runs the global disclosure system to manage the environmental impacts of companies, cities, states and regions.
San Luis Obispo is one of 95 cities across the globe and just nine in California to be placed on the “A List” out of 965 total cities evaluated for environmental action and transparency.
“Our community continues to prioritize climate action and sustainability and San Luis Obispo has an adopted goal of carbon neutrality by 2035 which is one of the most ambitious in the nation,” said City of San Luis Obispo Sustainability Manager Chris Read.
Read said the yearly process by the CDP to evaluate the city looks at a number of things.
“It asks, ‘Are we accurately looking at our greenhouse gas emissions? Are we thinking about how our community might be vulnerable to the impacts of climate change?’ But also, ‘Are we taking really impactful actions to make sure we’re driving down our greenhouse gas emissions, to make sure that we’re creating a community that’s resilient and adaptive to the changes we face?’” Read said.
He said the city is honored to receive the “A List” designation because it confirms they are on the right track with their climate actions so far. Though, he said, the city is far from done.
“While that feels good to have our collective community work validated, we also know there is a lot more work to do in front of us,” Read said.
Read said the city is working to achieve this by prioritizing clean community electricity, fossil fuel reduction in buildings, transportation infrastructure investment and open space conservation.
“It also includes actions that folks might not think of as climate action," Read said. "It includes things like our affordable housing program — making sure folks can live closer to where they work.”
Community members can learn more about the city’s climate action goals and get involved here and here.
