S.J. plan to fight climate change gets a boost

Bloomberg Philanthropies offers tech support, training to help meet goals

Months after San Jose unveiled an ambitious plan to address climate change, the city is getting an injection of cash and other support to make it happen.

On Wednesday, Bloomberg Philanthropies announced that San Jose has been accepted into a twoyear program aimed at helping the nation’s 10th largest city meet its climate plan goals.

The city plans to use the support to shift to sustainable transportation models and phase out the use of fossil fuels in buildings.

“We’re going to move the needle in reducing greenhouse gas emissions as a community,” Mayor Sam Liccardo said during a phone interview.

The organization — which handles former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s charitable giving — will give San Jose and 19 other cities technical support, a philanthropy-funded team member, and training for senior leadership, among other things, to help develop and put into effect environmentally friendly policies.

In San Jose, Liccardo wants to start an electric car pilot program aimed at people with modest incomes, among other projects.

“You don’t need to drive a Tesla to enjoy the green dividend,” Liccardo said.

He also wants the city to identify and measure energy consumption at commercial and multi-family residential buildings across the city to convince property owners to invest in more environmentally friendly products to reduce operating and maintenance costs.

Overall, the Bloomberg American Cities Climate Challenge is spending $70 million to help 20 cities work toward their goals. Several other California cities, including Los Angeles and San Diego, along with places like Portland and Atlanta, are participating in the program. Each city will get a support pack-

age valued at about $2.5 million. What’s included in that package will vary depending on what the cities need, but all of the cities will have an opportunity to network with each other so that if Portland has an innovative approach to convincing people to switch to electric vehicles, San Jose doesn’t need to reinvent the wheel on the same issue.

“We’re so excited to be part of that network,” said Kerrie Romanow, the director of the city’s environmental services department.

San Jose was selected in part because of Climate Smart San Jose. Unveiled in February, the plan aims to make the city one of the first in the U.S. to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to the levels outlined in the Paris Agreement.

“We were really inspired by the level of ambition the mayor and his team put forward to take action to transition away from single-occupancy vehicles in the city,” said Kelly Shultz, a member of the environment team at Bloomberg Philanthropies.

The organization’s mission, Shultz said, is to improve people’s lives, and “when we look at the lives of people that live in cities, you cannot improve lives unless you tackle climate change.”

San Jose recently launched its own community choice energy program — an alternative to PG&E — and plans to reduce carbon emissions from car trips by a million tons a year by 2030. By 2040, the city aims to become the first in the world to produce a gigawatt of solar power, which could power 250,000 homes.

“Cities are helping to keep America moving forward on climate change despite the lack of leadership from Washington, and this challenge was designed to help innovative mayors reach their goals,” Mike Bloomberg said in a statement. “We were looking for cities with ambitious and realistic plans to cut emissions in ways that improve people’s lives and mayors committed to getting the job done. Each of these winning cities brings those ingredients to the table, and we’re looking forward to working with them and seeing what they can accomplish.”

“We’re honored,” Romanow said, “and super excited to get moving.”