Good news, SF.
Climate pollution in our city is down by almost half.
But we can't let up.
6 Simple Ways to Fight Climate Change
You put the action in the San Francisco Climate Action Plan. The simple changes you make today have a huge impact on our future.*
The Plan is making a difference.
Here are just a few recent statistics:
What exactly is the Plan?
The San Francisco Climate Action Plan, approved by Mayor London N. Breed, is a comprehensive program designed to empower all San Franciscans to fight climate change and achieve net-zero emissions.
Learn more about how the Plan works across key sectors.
Energy Supply
Overview: San Francisco must transition away from fossil fuels to 100% renewable electricity for buildings and vehicles. To get there, new investments and community engagement will be needed to ensure affordable, reliable electricity, build local renewable energy projects, and increase the ability of the electric grid to support this transition.
Goals: By 2025, residents and businesses are supplied with 100% renewable electricity that is reliable and affordable.
Key Strategies: Expand renewable electricity capacity; prepare for the change in electricity demand; provide equitable rates and programs for low-income households; develop and support the clean-energy workforce.
Building Operations
Overview: Over time, buildings must get off natural gas and switch to clean, renewable electricity. Property owners will need education and financial help, and tenants and low-income residents must be protected from excessive rent increases and displacement risks. There should also be job opportunities for all workers to support the transition.
Goals: Eliminate emissions from all buildings by 2040 through electrification and using 100% renewable electricity.
Key Strategies: Electrify existing buildings; provide education and financial incentives; create a diverse and skilled workforce.
Transportation and Land Use
Overview: The transportation system and land use need to evolve together to support low-carbon travel options and reduce peoples’ reliance on cars to meet their daily needs; all remaining cars should be electric and use 100% renewable electricity. Achieving this will require ongoing public engagement, funding, and coordinated planning.
Goals: By 2030, 80% of all trips are low-carbon (e.g., transit, walking, biking). By 2040, all new registered private vehicles are electric.
Key Strategies: Make local and regional transit more efficient to increase ridership; build out active transportation networks; align parking management and pricing with climate goals; locate growth near transit corridors; switch to zero-emissions vehicles of all types.
Housing
Overview: Creating more housing for all income levels is essential to making San Francisco a more equitable and climate-resilient city. Resources, funding, and services for underserved communities must be expanded, while new housing opportunities are created in high-opportunity areas near transit, jobs, and other amenities.
Goals: Build at least 5,000 new housing units per year with maximum affordability, including not less than 30% affordable units, and with an emphasis on retaining and rehabilitating existing housing.
Key Strategies: Expand housing and stabilization programs, especially for families of color; preserve and rehabilitate existing housing for vulnerable populations; build housing for all income levels in lower-density areas near transit and other services.
Responsible Production and Consumption
Overview: While San Francisco continues to lead on zero waste through reuse, recycling, and composting efforts, much more can be done to address the total climate impact of products and services produced elsewhere but consumed here.
Goals: Reduce the amount of solid waste generated by 15% by 2030. Cut the amount of waste sent to landfills in half by 2030.
Key Strategies: Address the life-cycle impacts of buildings and building materials; reduce food waste and embrace plant-rich diets; repair instead of buying new; increase renewable aviation fuels for air travel.
Healthy Ecosystems
Overview: Nature-based solutions help sequester emissions, boost biodiversity, and provide a healthy environment that benefits all San Franciscans. To expand them and their benefits, the city must increase internal coordination and collaborate more with the public, especially with local indigenous communities and organizations, to create new policies, projects, and programs.
Goals: Use nature-based solutions to sequester emissions and support biodiversity.
Key Strategies: Restore natural lands of all types and conserve biodiversity; expand urban forestry and greening; implement regenerative agriculture practices, like spreading compost on rangelands, to sequester carbon from the atmosphere.
Water Supply
Overview: In the face of the challenges brought about by climate change, drought, wildfires, regulatory changes, and other uncertainties, San Francisco will continue diversifying its water supplies, maintaining the Regional Water System, and improving the use of new sources of water.
Goals: Diversify water-supply options during non-drought and drought periods. Improve use of new water sources and drought management. Maintain a gravity-driven water-delivery system.
Key Strategies: Invest in and implement supply augmentation programs; continue successful water conservation programs; explore new programs to reduce water use and develop new supplies.
The Future Thanks You, SF.
Thanks to all the little things San Franciscans are doing to reduce climate pollution, we’re well on the way to becoming a net zero-emissions city. But don’t take our word for it, see what a visitor from the future has to say.