City staff says Eugene is 'moving in the right direction' on climate plan but not yet on track to meet targets

City of Eugene climate staff on Wednesday summarized progress on the city’s Climate Action Plan (CAP 2), describing new public-facing tools and saying the city is “moving in the right direction, but not quite enough” to meet its local emissions targets.

Danielle (staff), the city’s climate policy analyst and manager for the Sustainability Commission, told commissioners the city has implemented or put into ongoing operation 67% of CAP 2’s 117 actions and has started all but about 4% of the remainder. She presented a short four‑page guide, a new interactive story map and a climate dashboard designed to make the plan’s work and greenhouse‑gas inventories easier for the public to explore.

The presentation focused on the five CAP 2 categories — transportation, buildings, waste, consumption and resilience — and used those categories to explain recent projects, metrics and where the city still needs to act. “Transportation is our biggest opportunity area for impact because it is the largest source of our greenhouse gas emissions,” Danielle said.

Why it matters

Eugene’s Climate Recovery Ordinance (2014) set local targets including a 50% cut in fossil fuel use by 2030 and an annual community‑wide greenhouse gas reduction target. City staff said examples of recent work include two protected downtown bikeways (High Street and Eighth Avenue), new lighting on the Fern Ridge Bike Path, incentives intended to encourage downtown housing, and programs to expand home heat‑pump adoption.

Key details and metrics

- CAP 2 status: 117 actions total; 67% implemented or “completed but ongoing”; about 4% not yet started, Danielle said. - Emissions: Fossil fuel use in Eugene has fallen about 11% since 2010; city operations emissions are down about 24% since FY2010, partly from switching fleet fuel and building efficiency upgrades. - Transportation: From 2011 to February 2024, total gasoline sales in Eugene fell about 4% in absolute terms and roughly 15% after adjusting for population growth; fuel sales in 2024 remained about 5% below 2019 levels, staff said. - Buildings: More than 1,200 households have installed heat pumps using local utility incentives; a free home energy score program provided 81 participants energy assessments last year. - Waste and consumption: The city reports a 53% recovery rate (recycling/compost) compared with a Lane County goal of 63%. The city’s commercial compost program has 217 participating businesses. Fix‑it fairs salvaged more than 174 items in 2024 and have kept about 3,000 pounds of goods from landfills since the events began. - Procurement and materials: A city requirement for low‑carbon concrete on city‑funded projects begins in 2025, staff said. - Resilience: Urban canopy coverage in the city increased from about 22% to 24% overall; the Bethel neighborhood rose from roughly 8% to 9%. The Community Emergency Response Training (CERT) program and additional emergency water sites are part of resilience work.

Tools for public engagement

Danielle said the new four‑page guide acts as a short entry point linking to the story map (a narrative, multimedia annual report), the climate dashboard (data and indicators) and ways the public can act. The story map was developed with an intern and uses ArcGIS to show projects, photos and videos; the dashboard presents greenhouse‑gas inventory data and year‑to‑year indicators.

Commissioner discussion and staff response

Commissioners questioned how the 67% implementation metric maps to emissions impacts. One commissioner asked whether the percentage reflected 67% of actions or 67% of projected emissions reductions. Danielle said the 67% figure counts actions, not weighted impact, and that greenhouse‑gas inventories are used separately to measure outcomes. “The emissions inventories…measure our total emissions year over year,” she said, calling the inventories a tool to “measure the impact of what implementing the actions have done.”

Members also asked whether the plan included a high/medium/low impact rating for actions. Danielle and colleagues pointed to the original CAP documents and an implementation plan that rates actions by expected climate and resilience impact, and said staff can better connect those ratings with the inventory trends in future communications.

What the city described as next steps

Staff said priorities for the next 12–24 months include expanding the Home Energy Score program, continuing to implement high‑impact transportation and building measures, and improving communications that connect CAP actions to measurable emissions outcomes. Danielle encouraged commissioners and the public to review the story map and dashboard and to provide feedback.

Ending

The presentation concluded with commissioners praising the new materials as more accessible than prior reports and urging staff to make clearer, impact‑weighted connections between individual CAP actions and emissions trends. Danielle summarized the presentation’s main takeaways: “We’re moving in the right direction, but not quite enough.”