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Together to Zero

City Council has adopted the aspirational climate goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2035. The City of Santa Barbara’s new Climate Action Plan (CAP), entitled Together to Zero, serves as the City’s roadmap to achieve this goal through reducing GHG emissions across the City and new strategies to remove carbon from the atmosphere. Implementing Together to Zero will reduce emissions from all municipal, residential, and commercial sectors within City bounds.

On this page you can learn about where the City’s emissions come from and how the we plan to reduce those emissions. 

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As we move Together to Zero, achieving carbon neutrality will be a complex and multifaceted challenge that involves transforming various aspects of energy consumption, infrastructure, transportation, AND behavior, while also relying on State and Federal governments to remain bold and ambitious. The CAP outlines a “10-year plan” of strategies we intend to undertake over the next decade given the best information we have today, and a “2-year plan” detailing the strategies either in process or quickly planned, for which funding and capacity currently exist.  

There are five sections in the CAP, each focused on how to bring our community closer to carbon neutrality by 2035. The Sustainability & Resilience team invites you to explore each section, detailed in the drop down menus below, and the full document. 

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Next Steps

The fight against climate change is not a once-fought battle; it is an iterative process of innovation, adaptation, and collective resilience. Each step forward propels us closer to a sustainable, carbon-neutral future. 

Achieving carbon neutrality will require state and federal legislation, funding, advancements in technology, and continued community education and empowerment. Because of this, the Climate Action Plan must be a dynamic, living document, assessed and adapted regularly to address changes in the landscape.

The City commits to reviewing the plan annually and adapting the priorities and timeline to current developments and best practices. Additionally, we commit to taking inventory of our local greenhouse gas emissions at least every five years and incorporating the results into renewed commitments and strategies.

CAP Next Steps

The CAP is a dynamic document that will be reviewed annually to assess progress and priorities. The contents of the CAP will change based on new information, new data, and best practices. 

Thank you for reading the 2024 Climate Action Plan. Our Team is excited to move Together to Zero with you!