Del Mar's greenhouse gas inventory for the base year 2005 was presented to the City Council at our meeting of April 25th. This detailed inventory of the sources of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases was prepared with the help of ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability, the San Diego Foundation, and Kaiser Permanente, with input from our local Sustainability Advisory Board. Key individuals who contributed to this report were Climate Fellows Robin Yeager and Jessica Rinaman, Brian Holland from ICLEI, and Gretchen Crowson, Assistant to our City Manager. The baseline emissions inventory is the first step in developing and then implementing a local climate action plan, the goal of which is to reduce our emissions, curtail global warming, and have cleaner air for all of us to breathe.

The inventory is separated into two sectors, emissions from city government operations and for the entire community (including the Fairgrounds).  Emissions are tallied in metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e) per year, an internationally agreed upon standard that takes into account five other greenhouse gases that are even worse than carbon dioxide. City activities generated 579 metric tons CO2e (=638 US tons) in 2005, with greater than half of that from City-owned vehicles and employee commutes.  If that sounds like a lot, the community inventory resulted emissions totaling 48,776 metric tons CO2e! Transportation was the biggest offender, accounting for 53% of the total. Emissions associated with electricity generation were the second most important contributor to total emissions, so cleaner energy sources will be important to reap the most benefit from electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles.

The Sustainability Advisory Board will be formulating our next step of setting goals for reducing our current level of greenhouse gas emissions. Obvious starting places are reducing vehicle trips, using more fuel-efficient vehicles, decreasing our solid waste generation, and adopting more energy efficient building guidelines.  Del Mar residents who use residential electric vehicles to go to the beach are an example for all of us --- they care about our beautiful environment and have made smart investments to preserve it.

If you want to read the entire report, it is posted on the City website at www.delmar.ca.us.