The Climate Action and Sustainability Committee voted to recommend that the Palo Alto City Council approve the 2026–2027 Sustainability and Climate Action Plan (SCAP) work plan and receive four supporting studies, staff said. The recommendation, carried unanimously, includes staff-and-committee consensus modifications to the draft before it goes to council.

Christine Long, sustainability manager, summarized the work plan’s structure and priorities, saying the plan contains 28 climate-action strategies and 16 sustainability strategies along with three communications strategies that together advance the city’s 80% emissions reduction and carbon-neutrality goals. "Our sustainability and climate action plan ... lays out the city strategy to achieve our carbon reduction goals while also improving our natural environment," Long said.

Staff described the studies as data and modeling tools that inform potential policy alternatives rather than prescriptive options. Assistant Director Jonathan Abenshein said the six studies provide models and illustrative scenarios and noted that some high-action scenarios will need updating because the federal policy environment and other assumptions have changed.

Committee members pressed staff on how the work plan maps to low-, medium- and high-action pathways and on funding. Council member Liu said the high-action scenario in the funding study suggested an ongoing cost gap on the order of tens of millions per year and asked whether the city could afford that level of investment. Staff replied that scale depends on community uptake and on identifying additional revenue sources, and that financing and regulatory options will be explored during the FY2027 budget process.

Public commenters urged clearer emissions metrics and stronger outreach. David Cole of Carbon Free Palo Alto said, "it's the emissions that we're after," and asked that studies include clearer cost-per-ton estimates to prioritize measures. Another commenter supported eliminating disposable foodware and urged restrictions on pesticides and more wildfire vegetation work.

Committee members repeatedly emphasized communications as foundational to implementation. Several members said that without stronger, targeted outreach the city will struggle to achieve large-scale community uptake, a point staff said they had elevated by proposing a regular reporting requirement for SCAP communications objectives.

Specific program areas discussed included workplace and public EV charging, multifamily electrification pilots, micro-mobility recommendations, grid modernization and barrier reduction for distributed generation and storage. Staff pointed to CA16–CA18 and CA21–CA26 (work plan codes) as the items where those activities are advanced or will be studied.

The committee’s formal action was to recommend that council approve the 2026–2027 SCAP work plan and to "receive" the listed studies so council and staff can use the modeling tools and data in future policy and budget decisions. The clerk recorded unanimous affirmative votes from Council member Liu, the presiding member (recorded on the roll), and Council member Berg. With the motion carried, staff will prepare the report and package for the City Council review, and staff noted they will return with more detailed financing and implementation analysis during the 2026–2027 budget process.