Corte Madera — The Climate Action Committee heard on Aug. 20 that transportation is the largest source of the town’s community greenhouse gas emissions and that Corte Madera is close to meeting its 2030 reduction target, though officials cautioned that remaining reductions will be harder to achieve.

The overview of the 2023 inventory was presented by Christine O’Rourke, sustainability coordinator for the Marin Climate and Energy Partnership. “So there's always about a year and a half or so lag from the data to when we can, share the reports with you,” O’Rourke said as she opened her presentation.

The nut graf: The presentation summarized emissions by sector (transportation, natural gas in buildings, electricity, waste and others), reviewed long-term trends back to 2005 and 1990 estimates, and showed modelled projections. Committee members used the update to press staff on data caveats and on whether local policies will be sufficient to meet a target of 40% below 1990 levels by 2030 and net-zero by 2045 — statewide goals that the town’s plan aligns with.

Key findings presented
- Transportation is the largest single sector, driven mainly by passenger vehicles; O’Rourke noted, “most of the emissions is, as you can see, comes from the transportation sector.”
- By 2023 Corte Madera’s emissions were reported as 34% below the town’s 1990 estimate. The state target cited in the presentation is 40% below 1990 by 2030, with a longer-term goal of net-zero by 2045.
- Electricity-sector emissions have fallen sharply (presenter cited a 93% decline since 2005) as grid electricity becomes cleaner; natural gas emissions were down roughly 50% since 2005; transportation emissions were down 26% since 2005.
- Zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) adoption: Marin County was reported at about 9.3% ZEVs in 2023 and Corte Madera at 11.4% that year; preliminary 2024 county-level data cited 11% ZEV share. Staff showed a projection that continuing recent growth rates (about 21% year over year in ZEV registrations for the period cited) could bring the ZEV share above the town’s 25% target by 2030.

Data caveats and year-over-year shifts
- The presenter and committee members noted reporting gaps influenced year-to-year changes: for example, PG&E withheld some commercial electricity detail in 2023 because of utility data-privacy rules, producing an apparent 10% drop in reported electricity use that was largely explained by missing commercial data; residential electricity fell roughly 2% year over year.
- Natural gas use rose about 5% between 2022 and 2023; staff said weather variability and colder seasons drive natural gas consumption. Waste-sector emissions rose about 3% in 2023; staff said the CalRecycle-based regional waste data used for all Marin cities showed the same countywide trend.
- Long-term drops showed major contributors such as the 2011 closure of a local industrial plant (the presenter cited that closure as a notable historical driver of emissions decline), a factor staff said complicates simple trend projections.

Questions and public comment
- Committee members asked for clarifying data on per-capita trends (O’Rourke supplied population estimates: Corte Madera ~9,926 in 2023 vs. ~9,041 in 2005) and about how much of historical natural gas decline is attributable to the industrial plant shutdown; staff said they could attempt an estimate but the utilities do not publish plant-level usage.
- A member of the public, identified on the record as Roy, asked whether the town’s electric vehicle strategy focuses on individual ownership versus shared or autonomous fleet solutions; committee staff declined to respond to the substantive policy suggestion during open time but said the committee could add the topic to a future agenda.

Why it matters: The report shows Corte Madera has made substantial progress on emissions, particularly via cleaner electricity and vehicle efficiency, but remaining reductions to meet 2030 and 2045 goals will rely more on building electrification and continued adoption of zero-emission vehicles.

Next steps and follow-ups: Committee members asked staff to return with additional detail on some items including a breakdown of how much the industrial-plant closure affected historical emissions, a fuller analysis of recent charging and electricity-use data, and an updated projection of expected ZEV growth. Staff said the next inventory update will use the standard 18-month data lag and that they will provide supplementary materials upon request.