Building Climate Adaptation into Statewide GHG Toolkit

SB1 Adaptation Planning Grant: Final Case Study

 

Brief Summary

Across California, many local agencies rely upon two tools for air quality or greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation analysis as part of California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) review for new land use projects. These tools are the California Emissions Estimator Model (CalEEMod) and its companion document the California Air Pollution Control Officers Association (CAPCOA) Quantifying Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Measures handbook (GHG Handbook). Both tools provide rigorous quantification methodologies to assist local agencies to reduce GHG and air pollutant emissions for new land use projects and plans, through mitigation measures for building energy, transportation and vehicle miles traveled (VMT), water, waste, and other sectors. 

However, both our understanding of the climate crisis and State policies and goals have advanced significantly since these tools were developed over a decade ago. The project involved updating CalEEMod and the GHG Handbook with new climate mitigation strategies, and incorporating climate adaptation strategies and approaches to address equity and public health. With these updates, the tools will enable a more holistic consideration of climate and equity in land use planning and development.

Moreover, CalEEMod has been rebuilt as a cloud-based web tool, accessible to anyone, and allowing integration with Cal-Adapt, CalEnviroScreen, and the Healthy Places Index to help identify future climate impacts as well as existing health and environmental burdens in the project location. For example, users can determine if a proposed future housing project is in a wildfire risk zone or an under-served community, with recommended strategies to address both.

This project has a statewide footprint, and can benefit communities across California in developing land use projects as well as grant proposals. The project will help support local governments in complying with the 2018 CEQA Guidelines Update, SB 379, the General Plan Guidelines, and SB 375. The updates also account for new State targets such as SB 32 and SB 100. The project timeline was from March 2020 to May/June 2022.

Lead Agency and Partnerships

The lead agency was the Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District (SMAQMD), working with CAPCOA and a technical advisory committee (TAC) of local and regional agencies from across California, including air districts, cities and counties, metropolitan planning organizations, and non-profit and environmental groups. State agencies such as the California Air Resources Board, the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research, and the Strategic Growth Council were also part of the TAC. This collaboration guided the project, providing input and feedback on interim deliverables, so that the resulting tools can serve the needs of all California jurisdictions.

Drivers

This project was driven by the need to update both CalEEMod and the GHG Handbook. The funding opportunity was the SB1 Caltrans Adaptation Planning Grant Program.

Engagement Process and Climate Equity

The project aimed to develop tools and resources to enable planners to better address equity, climate vulnerabilities, and public health for both the process and outcomes of land use development. By embedding these tools and resources into CalEEMod and the GHG Handbook, the goal was to ensure that a health- and equity-centered approach can be adopted and prioritized in all planning in California.

We centered recommendations for a more equitable process of land-use development on: 1) a community-centered approach, centering project design and features around community needs, including through a community benefits agreement; 2) meaningful engagement and outreach, ensuring all members are able to participate in the public process, without barriers; and 3) accountability, ensuring that projects are accountable for their commitments.

We also developed recommendations and strategies around the outcomes of land use development to help benefit the community, and improve—not worsen—existing health and environmental burdens. These include recommended project features to address air quality, construction impacts, equitable economic development, inclusive communities, climate resilience, and more.  

These approaches are embedded into CalEEMod through integrations with CalEnviroScreen and the Healthy Places Index; a health and equity dashboard; and a health and equity scorecard that evaluates the project’s adoption of health and equity recommendations. For the GHG Handbook, a health and equity chapter provides extensive, research-supported discussion of each strategy.

In addition, the project engaged local governments across California to understand their challenges and needs for climate planning, CEQA, and climate adaptation. The project interviewed local agencies and reviewed feedback from CalEEMod users. The TAC also provided feedback and guidance, including on the selection of mitigation and adaptation measures, quantification methodologies, and more.

Climate Impact Area

This project aims to embed consideration of climate impacts and vulnerabilities into land use development. Climate impacts addressed include drought, wildfire, flooding, sea-level rise, extreme heat, and multiple hazard events. For the GHG Handbook, this is achieved through a climate adaptation chapter that walks users through the process of evaluating and scoring the project’s vulnerabilities, sensitivity, and exposure to climate impacts, and also provides a comprehensive set of climate mitigation measures.

The new CalEEMod automates this same approach: CalEEMod uses the project location data to interface with the Cal-Adapt API to identify future climate impacts under Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 8.5. Based on the identified climate hazards, as well as the land use type, CalEEMod identifies climate adaptation measures that are relevant for the project. An adaptation module enables users to evaluate their project’s vulnerabilities to climate risks, and select adaptation strategies by co-benefits (e.g., reduced energy use).

Funding Source

This project was funded by a SB1 Adaptation Planning Grant of $733,467 from Caltrans. SMAQMD provided a $25,000 cash match as well as staff time. Additional funding was provided by the California Department of Public Health and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District.

Research and Data

The project relied upon data and resources such as Cal-Adapt, the California Adaptation Planning Guide 2.0, and published peer-reviewed research on climate change mitigation and adaptation.

Challenges

Major challenges included the project scope and short timeline. The complexities of programming CalEEMod’s many calculations to quantify the GHG emissions of a land use project over 30 years, encompassing transportation, construction, energy, water, waste, natural and working lands, and refrigeration, are immense. Calculating the impact of dozens of mitigation measures to reduce emissions from each of these sectors only further complicates the programming. Additionally, the simultaneous update of the GHG Handbook and CalEEMod, which are interdependent, often meant that mid-stream changes in one necessitated revisions in the other. Additionally, the project TAC and stakeholders often had excellent ideas and suggestions that could not be incorporated due to limited budget and timeline. It was important to manage participants’ expectations about project scope.

Other challenges included the difficulty of updating data that support CalEEMod calculations. Estimating GHG emissions at the project and plan level would be greatly facilitated if the State of California provided accurate, publicly available databases on such topics such as current and future GHG emissions factors by utility, water use rates by land use, and waste disposal rates by land use and county.

Outcomes

CalEEMod and the GHG Handbook incorporate strategies, resources, and recommendations to help land use projects address GHG emissions, equity, public health, and climate adaptation. While CalEEMod and the GHG Handbook are only tools—and outcomes depend on how the tools are used—we hope that the expanded capabilities of these two tools will translate into more equitable, healthy, and climate-resilient outcomes for both new land use projects and existing communities. Thus, a critical next step is to work with local agencies and other air districts to provide training, assistance, and guidance to facilitate the use of these new capabilities to support healthier and more equitable outcomes for California. Other next steps include taking feedback for future updates. Ultimately, the project will help to realize at the local level State of California goals and policies such as integrated climate strategies that prioritize both adaptation and mitigation, as well as sustainable land use planning to support public health and VMT reduction.

Replicability

As this is designed to be a statewide toolkit serving local governments across California, replicability within California is not necessary. It may be replicated by other states or countries.

Additional Resources

Both the GHG Handbook and CalEEMod are available at www.caleemod.com as of February 2022 and May 2022, respectively. Other resources consulted are cited in the GHG Handbook by chapter. 

Further Information

Please contact Shelley Jiang (sjiang@airquality.org