At a community workshop last week, the city of San Luis Obispo’s Office of Sustainability previewed their 2026 Climate Action Progress Report to the public.
The report identifies what’s working and which areas still need improvement to meet the city’s climate goals.
“We're making really good progress,” Sustainability Manager Chris Read said. “We estimate that by 2035, we'll essentially cut our greenhouse gas emissions in half, which if we had said that ten years ago, would've been almost unbelievable, ”
In 2020, the San Luis Obispo City Council adopted the goal of carbon neutrality by 2035.
Carbon neutrality refers to a balance between the amount of greenhouse gases emitted and the amount that’s removed from the atmosphere, resulting in zero emissions added to atmospheric carbon levels.
Read says the council knew back then that the 2035 goal was ambitious.
The state has set guidelines on how San Luis Obispo counts its emissions, Read told KCBX. The categories that go into the city’s carbon emissions inventory include electricity and natural gas used in buildings, and fuel used in vehicles.
He says the city has made great progress in carbon-free electricity, transportation and in reducing the amount of organic waste like food that ends up in landfills and creates methane gas.
One of the areas where reducing emissions has been difficult is in regional transportation trips, like people who drive to and from the city from surrounding communities.
“We take about half of those greenhouse gas emissions in our inventory,” Read said.
He said that they’ll be tackling regional transportation more later this summer.
“We'll really be looking to community-based organizations, regional agencies, and all of the folks in the community that have big ideas to help us figure out how to solve those problems,” Read told KCBX.
One program Read mentioned during the workshop is the California Public Utilities Commission’s Home Energy Score.
A trained assessor can visit and rate homes based on energy efficiency.
Read says that the program needs a few more people to be trained as assessors before it can start locally this summer.
“ We're really close to having enough people to get certified to launch that program in our community,” Read said.
The San Luis Obispo City Council will discuss the 2026 Climate Action Progress Report on April 7.
Read says the council will give feedback that will help inform how they’ll update the city’s Climate Action Plan. That plan will then be presented to the city council in 2027.
