On this Earth Day and every day, the City of San Diego is prioritizing protecting our environment for future generations by limiting greenhouse gas emissions. The City’s landmark Climate Action Plan (CAP) set forth a bold strategy: To achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2035, committing the City to an ambitious timeline for reducing pollution and improving the lives of all San Diegans. 

As of April 2025, more than half of the CAP actions are in progress and almost one-third are complete. And as of 2022, emissions throughout the city were down about 20% from 2019 levels. 

Many CAP-related activities not only help reduce pollution, but also bring significant operational and financial benefits to the City, allowing the City to more efficiently serve San Diegans. 

For example, when City buildings improve their energy efficiency, it creates long-term savings on utility costs. That allows the City to make new infrastructure investments that would otherwise not be possible. 

The CAP was adopted in 2022 and the Climate Action Implementation Plan was completed in 2023. The City has since made significant progress making climate action a routine part of City operations. 

• Every item brought to the City Council identifies how it is connected to the CAP, and infrastructure improvements supporting the CAP receive budget priority. 

• Each City department involved in CAP actions has annual work plans and provides regular reports on their progress. 

• Progress is shared publicly on a regular basis on the interactive CAP Dashboard, which reports status, performance indicators and more for all 190 CAP actions. 

Other ways that CAP activities benefit the City include: 

• Innovative partnerships. The City’s Municipal Energy Strategy lays out creative solutions and encourages partnerships to save taxpayers millions of dollars in energy costs, while working toward the goal of zero emissions in City facilities and nearly all City vehicles by 2035. 

• Sustainable City facilities. All eligible City accounts have been shifted to 100% renewable electricity, and the City is now looking into doing energy retrofits at more than 50 existing municipal facilities and nearly 50,000 streetlights. Improvements will include roof repairs, installing solar energy storage, switching furnaces and water heaters from gas to electric, putting more efficient appliances and water fixtures in City buildings, and using LED lighting to brighten streets, buildings and parks. 

• Public electric vehicle charging. The City has contracted with an outside vendor to install electric vehicle (EV) chargers at over 400 City-owned parking lots accessible to the public, including libraries, recreation centers and parks. The agreement costs the City nothing upfront since the vendor is responsible for financing, installation, operations and maintenance of the chargers, and the City collects the charging fees. 

• Resilient microgrids. Standalone power grids at City facilities allow essential services to be maintained during emergencies, while reducing emissions and energy costs. Next, the City will look into using microgrids to create cooling centers to help community members during energy disruptions or other emergencies.   

With so many City activities now centered around achieving the Climate Action Plan goals, we are well on our way to a more sustainable and resilient future for San Diego.