San Ramon planning commission forwards draft Climate Action Plan to council, urges clear work plan and funding

San Ramon — The San Ramon Planning Commission voted unanimously at its May 6, 2025 meeting to forward the city’s draft Climate Action Plan (CAP) to the City Council with a set of commissioner comments stressing the need for a staffing-and-funding work plan and clearer implementation timelines.

Rincon Consultants and city staff presented the CAP update during the meeting. Kelsey Bennett, environmental sustainability planning director with Rincon Consultants, told commissioners that “this item is for the updated climate action plan or CAP for short. You can think of the CAP as essentially a road map for the city to achieve its long term greenhouse gas reduction targets, through, the years 2030 and 2045.” Emily Saul, also with Rincon Consultants, summarized the plan’s structure and measures and said the draft contains 24 measures across seven strategies and an implementation chapter to guide monitoring and updates.

The draft uses 2019 as the baseline year and reports a community-wide inventory of 437,784 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e). The plan’s 2030 target shown in the draft is 332,995 metric tons CO2e, leaving a reduction gap of about 99,462 metric tons CO2e to close by 2030. Consultants said the majority of near-term reductions in the draft come from on-road transportation and building natural gas measures. The consultants and…