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<br />5C <br />Page 12 <br /> <br />Energy and Greenhouse Gas Emissions <br />Why is this important? <br /> <br />Global climate change is an increasingly acknowledged environmental problem. There is <br />scientific consensus that it is caused by greenhouse gases being released into the atmosphere <br />faster than the earth's natural systems can re~absorb them. Besides a small portion of emissions <br />resulting from waste decomposition, soil disruption, or the release of industrial chemicals, <br />energy use (in buildings, transportation, or elsewhere) is the primary source of greenhouse gas <br />emissions in most U.S. cities, induding Redwood City. Both decreased energy consumption and <br />increased renewable energy production are key components to reducing greenhouse gas <br />emissions, and one without the other is unlikely to achieve a sustainable energy economy. <br /> <br />Models predict world temperatures willlise by between 1.4 and 5.8 .C (2.5 and 10.4 OF) during <br />the 21st century, depending on how much atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases rise <br />and on the eventual effect of such rises.1 These global changes would affect residents of <br />Redwood City in a variety of ways, including: <br />. More frequent heat waves. <br />. Rising sea levels, which would threaten coastal infrastructure such as the Port of <br />Redwood City, residential, industrial, or other development near sea level, and coastal <br />ecosystems such as Bail' Island and Redwood City's many other wetland areas. <br />. A decrease in the Sierra snowpack, which will reduce fresh water availability through <br />the Hetch Hetchy water system tllat supplies Redwood City, and could reduce the <br />availability ofhydro~elecn'ic electricity, a major power source for Redwood City. <br />. The potential arrival of tropical insect~borne diseases. <br /> <br />Besides Redwood City's obvious stake in contributing to efforts to address this global problem, <br />there is increasing market and regulatory support for action. The implementation of California's <br />AB 32 law, which requires California to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions levels to 1990 levels <br />by 2020, will mandate emissions reductions across sectors, at the regional level and likely at t.."h.e <br />local level. Meanwhile, rising energy prices provide increasing economic incentive to conserve <br />energy and produce it from renewable sources. California residents and institutions have many <br />years of experience implementing energy conservation efforts. While per capita energy <br />consumption has increased nationally by 50% over tlle past 30 years, per capita consumption in <br />California has not increased over the same period, due to many factors including efficiency and <br />conservation campaigns by governments, private citizens and some utility companies. <br /> <br />Defining Sustainability <br /> <br />A sustainable level of global greenhouse gas emissions could be rerabsorbed by the earth's <br />natural processes, and a sustainable local level of greenhouse gas emissions would contribute <br />proportionally to this goal. A sustainable energy economy would have stable or decreasing levels <br />of consumption combined with indefinitely renewable energy sources. <br /> <br />I Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Working Group III Report: Climate Change 2007: Mitigation of <br />Climate Change, p. 133. <br /> <br />Redwood City <br />Page 2 <br /> <br />Sustainability Indicator Analysis <br />