Climate Action

Taking Action On Climate And Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions

The problem: People are experiencing the significant impacts of climate change, which include changing weather patterns, rising sea level, and more extreme weather events. The greenhouse gas emissions from human activities are driving climate change and continue to rise. They are now at their highest levels in history, with the world’s average surface temperature at 1.04 degrees Celsius above the baseline. Without climate action, this figure is projected to continue rising and is likely to surpass 3 degrees Celsius this century—with some areas of the world expected to warm even more. Strong climate action is needed to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius and protect Cupertino and the global community from extreme climate change impacts.

The solutions: The City of Cupertino has reduced our greenhouse gas emissions over the past eight years but there is more work to be done. These climate action efforts include developing programs, policies, and resources related to energy, waste, transportation, water, adaptation and climate resiliency.

Cupertino's goal is to reduce our City's greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by the year 2040.

The City is following the goals and development path of the Paris Climate Agreement and supports regional, state, and national policies which help reduce global emissions.

Understanding our City's Emissions

Cupertino’s path toward creating a healthy, livable and vibrant place for its current and future residents to learn, work and play is outlined in its Climate Action Plan. An additional greenhouse gas inventory is included in the Climate Action Plan 2.0.(PDF, 10MB)

Greenhouse Gas Inventories

Energy Savings Statistics from Silicon Valley Clean Energy

  • Switching to SVCE led to a 96% reduction in electricity related emissions
  • 31,079,000 million pounds greenhouse gas emissions avoided in 2021
  • $432,000 in on-bill savings for Cupertino customers in 2021 ($4,158,000 since launch in 2018)
  • In Cupertino, we have 22,700 households and businesses receiving clean electricity from carbon-free sources

What is the City Doing?

Current & Upcoming Work Plan

Electrify the City

Currently most buildings run on multiple power sources. They use electricity to power lights, refrigerators, and electronic devices, and they consume fossil fuels such as natural gas or propane to power furnaces, boilers and water heaters. If we can all switch our appliances to 100% electric, we can power our buildings with clean energy such as wind and solar which does not contribute to greenhouse gasses.

Learn more about this process at All Electric Building.

Reduce Transportation Demand and Increase Green Alternatives

Transportation is currently our city's largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. This is from our cars, trucks, and motor vehicles as well as larger commercial vehicles that travel through Cupertino. If we all change our method of transportation to shared rides, public transportation, bicycles, scooters, or electric vehicles then we can stop the pollution from the tailpipes.

Learn more about this process at Transportation.

Natural Systems and Biodiversity

Trees and nature are essential to a healthy and resilient community. The City plans to determine how many more trees we can plant and sustain, where those trees should go, and how best to manage and protect them. Trees naturally capture and store carbon from the air through photosynthesis, reducing our greenhouse gas impact.

Learn more about this process at City Street Trees.

Improve Community Resilience to Drought and Wildfire (and other climate related disasters)

Although water consumption does not have a large increase in greenhouse gas emissions, we all need to play our part to help conserve this precious resource. Worsening drought conditions lead to longer fire season and poor air quality.

Learn more about what you can do to help at Drought.

Reduce our Waste

By reducing unnecessary consumption and increasing our waste diversion from landfill, we can help to reduce greenhouse emissions and stop landfills from filling up. This means that we need to shop smart, reduce our demand for plastics and other problem materials, repair and reuse whenever possible, and recycle everything possible.

Learn more about waste diversion at Garbage and Recycling

Long-Term work plan

There is much more work to be done. You can view the entire list of measures and actions in Cupertino's Climate Action Plan 2.0(PDF, 10MB) . This plan was adopted in August 2022.

View Progress Reports to see our recent work

From 2010 to 2018, the City has reduced our greenhouse gas emissions from 408,176 Metric Tons CO2e to 346,998 Metric Tons CO2e. View the progress reports below to see how we accomplished that!

Reporting and Recognition

CDP Reporting

CDP Disclosure Insight Action is a non-profit charity that runs the global disclosure system for cities who manage their environmental impacts such as climate change, water security, and deforestation.

CDP is the reporting tool the City of Cupertino uses to disclose our performance to the Global Covenant of Mayors (GCoM) and other stakeholders. By providing a framework on our climate action efforts, the City is able to develop and improve upon plans, projects, and reflect on its weaknesses and successes. By reporting to CDP, the City demonstrates leadership in climate projects and initiatives. As of 2021, Cupertino joins at least 1,128 cities across 85 countries in disclosing their climate and environmental data through CDP. The following snapshot reports indicate our progress since 2017.

Disclosure: Please note that the scoring system is based upon multiple metrics and may not accurately portray how the City of Cupertino is doing in addressing climate change.

Yearly reporting:

Global Covenant of Mayors

The City of Cupertino is committed to the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy (GCoM) to build mitigation, adaptation, and access to energy in our climate action plan. Badges earned for commitment to climate action:

Committed

Mitigation

Adaptation

City of Cupertino GCoM dashboard

Other awards

The City of Cupertino earned the Platinum Level Award in 2020 from the Institute for Local Government (ILG) for climate leadership. This award is a monumental achievement and publicly acknowledges the leadership and efforts taken by the City to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Climate Action Plan 2.0 (2022)

Cupertino's Climate Action Plan 2.0 was adopted by City Council on August 16, 2022.

This document describes a series of measures and actions that will aid the municipal operations and the City as a whole to a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and meet our community goals. The goals include:

  • Achieve carbon neutrality in City-owned facilities and operations no later than 2030;
  • Reduce community-wide emissions by 50% below 2010 levels by 2030;
  • Achieve community-wide carbon neutrality no later than 2040 (five years earlier than the state target);
  • Achieve negative net carbon emissions after 2045;
  • Establish a Zero Waste Community target date of 2035;
  • Pursue the Climate Action Plan (CAP) Update process with the guiding principles of equity, innovation, urgency and flexibility, resilience, and adaptation.

To achieve these goals, the plan is broken into chapters and includes topics like energy, transportation, waste, water, biodiversity, and natural systems. This plan also includes an adaptation chapter which will help residents be prepared for extreme weather events and effects of a changing climate.

Each topic has several measures which are broken into actions. The actions show a holistic approach to achieving the goal because they look at structural changes, funding sources, equity, education, studies, and more.

Read the plan by clicking the links below.

Additional plan development details can be found at engagecupertino.org/climate-action. For questions about this plan, please contact us at sustainability@cupertino.gov

Climate Action Plan (2015)

Cupertino’s Climate Action Plan (CAP) is a series of strategies which sets Cupertino on a path to achieve:

  • 15% reduction in carbon emissions by the year 2020 &
  • 49% reduction by 2035 and 83% by 2050.

The plan builds on the City’s past, ongoing, and future efforts to achieve emissions reduction and support sustainable programs

Climate Action Plan (full document)(PDF, 10MB)

Watch a video about Cupertino's climate action leadership

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