To support California's ambitious emissions reductions goals, the City of Mountain View has adopted community-wide and municipal operations greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction targets, and regularly measures its emissions through a greenhouse gas inventory. These inventories enable the City to evaluate progress toward its short- and long-term reduction targets.

Greenhouse Gas Reduction Targets

In response to climate change, the State of California passed AB 32 (Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006), requiring California to reduce State-wide GHG emissions 80% by 2050. In October 2007, the City Council endorsed a goal of meeting or exceeding California's AB 32 requirements for emissions reductions. In addition, the Council sought overall sustainability input from the public through Environmental Sustainability Task Forces 1 and 2, convened in 2008 and 2017, which recommended community-wide reduction targets among many other initiatives.

Community Emissions Reductions Targets

In November 2009, and subsequently amended through the Climate Protection Roadmap (CPR), the City adopted voluntary, absolute GHG reduction targets for the community as a whole, with the ultimate goal of reducing emissions 80% below 2005 levels by 2050. These targets were amended again in December 2019 to adopt a steeper reduction curve, increasing the expected near-term GHG reductions. View these revised targets.

Municipal Operations Emissions Reduction Targets

In March 2010, and subsequently amended through the Municipal Operations Climate Action Plan (MOCAP), the City adopted voluntary, absolute GHG reduction targets for municipal operations, with the ultimate goal of reducing emissions 80% below 2005 levels by 2050. These short- and long-term targets, and detailed information about the City's strategies to reduce municipal operations emissions, are available in the MOCAP.

For information about community-wide and municipal operations GHG levels, see "Greenhouse Gas Inventories" below.

Greenhouse Gas Inventories

The City conducts a GHG inventory to measure greenhouse gas emissions generated community-wide and by municipal operations. With this as a guide, the City works with residents, businesses, and municipal staff to identify and implement programs and projects to reduce GHG emissions from everyday activities.

While emissions from municipal operations make up less than 2% of all emissions generated community-wide, the City strives to provide services to the public more efficiently and reduce its environmental impact. The City reduced emissions from municipal operations by 51% between 2005 and 2018. On the other hand, community-wide emissions are not under the direct control of the City, so we are counting on everyone to help us reach our community GHG reduction goals.

Community Emissions

As of 2019, community-wide GHG emissions totaled 601,980 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MT CO2e), a decrease of about 14% from our 2005 baseline levels. Read more: 2019 Preliminary Community Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory.

Municipal Operations Emissions

As of 2018, municipal (Local Government Operations) GHG emissions totaled 8,700 MT CO2e, a decrease of about 51% from our 2005 baseline levels. Learn more by accessing the 2018 Local Government Operations Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory.

Sustainability Dashboards

Our Sustainability and Climate Dashboards track Mountain View’s progress on key goals and greenhouse gas reduction targets. The dashboards include data from the City’s greenhouse gas inventories, progress on building electrification, sustainable transportation, zero waste, and more. To explore the data, click the links below.

Note: When exploring the Sustainability Dashboard, the browser Back and Forward buttons don't let you navigate within Tableau. Instead, use the Left Arrow (Undo) and the Right Arrow (Redo) buttons in the Tableau bar at the bottom of each page.

• Sustainability Dashboard
• Climate Dashboard

Contact

If you have any comments or questions about this page, please contact the Sustainability Program by emailing sustainability@mountainview.gov, or by leaving a comment on Collaborate Mountain View.

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