The City of Davis 2020-2040 Climate Action and Adaptation Plan (CAAP) update process continues with opportunities for the community to provide input and opinions on proposed actions. The process has identified and prioritized 29 draft actions that it is recommending for the City of Davis to take to achieve the City’s goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2040 and to combat climate change. The actions fall under Building Energy and Design, Transportatino & Land Use, Water & Solid Waste, and Climate Risk and Carbon Removal categories. Each action is identified as a mitigation action that reduces greenhouse gases or an adaptation action that respondes to climate risks. The actions to be included in the CAAP will be finalized only after further community input and an upcoming City Council meeting, most likely in December.

Community members are encouraged to provide input on the draft prioritized actions at a temporary community forum website hosted by the team at https://www.daviscaap.com before November 10th, and to register for the workshop held that same evening.

Register in advance for the workshop: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88097717055

CAAP Update objectives

The current CAAP Update will build on the existing 2010 Plan and will identify a roadmap to measurable, enforceable, equitable and implementable community actions to reduce carbon emissions and increase community resilience. The completed CAAP will be a living document, incorporating review, implementation monitoring, and updates on a regular basis.

The interim carbon reduction target is 2030, with full community carbon neutrality projected by 2040, based on City Council adoption of the 2019 Climate Emergency Resolution. To implement this, the primary CAAP objectives are to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and risk from climate change hazards in a way that provides additional co-benefits and advances social justice and equity in the community.

CAAP Project Director Dianna Jensen tells us that “urgent action to address climate change is necessary in our community to provide a much-needed update to current City policy, to bring Davis into compliance with state legislation, and to address issues of equity and inclusion, environmental quality and public health. The City is focused on adopting and implementing a climate action plan in the Davis context by mid-2022, and supports the community engagement incorporated into this CAAP Update.”

Get involved with the climate planning process

The CAAP Team encourages community members to visit the community forum website at https://www.daviscaap.com to learn about the draft prioritized actions, provide feedback and offer opinions. The community forum page, available now through November 10, is intended to 1) inform community members about draft prioritized actions to be included in the CAAP; and 2) gain input and feedback about from the community about the actions to inform the workshop content and the CAAP document.

Note that these actions are not yet set in stone, and will only be finalized after the November 10 community meeting. Each of the +/-25 draft prioritized actions, as well as the remaining non-prioritized actions to be included with less detail in the CAAP, are addressed in the forum. Community members will be able to see all previous comments on the actions, as well as add their own on the webpage.

Register for workshop #4

The fourth CAAP workshop will be held on Wednesday, November 10, 2021, starting at 5:00 p.m.

Register in advance for the workshop: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88097717055

Draft Prioritized Actions

Each of prioritized actions will be developed further with ‘Action Implementation Roadmaps’, which will be part of the CAAP document, and will identify the City key staff responsible, more detailed action steps, progress and measurement metrics, budget and funding sources, greenhouse gas emission reduction projections and other factors. Over 50 additional actions from the original list compiled from community input will also be included in the CAAP with less detail, so that they can be raised to ‘priority’ level when appropriate.

It is important to note that City staff and the City Attorney’s office are reviewing each of these actions to address legality, complexity and other issues. There is no guarantee that because an action is prioritized now, that it will be legally within the City’s power to adopt as part of the CAAP document. Some measures may require language changes, and/or lobbying at the State level to change legal requirements in order to consider for inclusion.

We have also identified ‘implementation considerations’ for many of the actions, based on review from key stakeholders, such as the Natural Resources Commission and other commission CAAP liaisons. These will be included as comments from staff on the community forum website linked above.

More information

Visit the City of Davis CAAP webpage

Have questions about the process? Read the Frequently Asked Questions (PDF)

Questions and answers about the CAAP action evaluation process asked at the July 26, 2021 Natural Resources Commission meeting (PDF)

 A summary of the action evaluation process can be viewed in a short video

CAAP Vulnerability Assessment Now Available

The purpose of the vulnerability assessment is to better understand how climate change hazards will affect City of Davis assets, its residents and businesses. Read the Vulnerability Assessment (PDF).