SA Climate Ready
Climate Change in San Antonio
Together, we are building solutions to prepare our city for climate change. Along with its partners and members of the community, the City of San Antonio adopted a Climate Action and Adaptation Plan (CAAP) on October 17, 2019. The CAAP will lay a roadmap to reduce carbon emissions, adapt to a changing climate, and ensure San Antonio remains a healthy, vibrant place for generations to come.
Visit the SA Climate Ready Library to view the adopted Plan and other documents.
The program was recognized by the American Planning Association - Texas Chapter, achieving the statewide 2021 Environmental Planning Award.
SA Climate Ready
Climate Education and Empowerment for City Staff
In order to educate and empower city staff, the Office of Sustainability created a new training series focused on climate change called “Understanding Climate Change & Action in San Antonio”. Over 8,000 employees took the training in year 1. The program received positive reviews and inspired most attendees to apply something new that they learned to their personal or work life. The program was recognized by the American Planning Association-Texas Chapter, achieving the statewide 2021 Environmental Planning Award - Gold.
“I received the Climate Change and Action training series and it sparked my interest…I am very interested in learning more about San Antonio’s efforts towards combating environmental concerns.” - Development Services Department
“My daughter is super into the climate change issues, so it’s something I can bond with her on, plus it’s a very timely and important issue!” - Finance Department
72% of employees took the training in 2021. 84% of trainees learned something new about climate change. 72% have applied something they learned at home or work. Top five scoring departments are Planning, Office of Historic Preservation, Office of Management & Budget, City Auditor, and Office of Equity.
SA Climate Ready
Climate Equity
Equity means that our policy-making, service delivery, and distribution of resources account for the different histories, challenges, and needs of the people we serve. Equity differs from equality, which treats everyone the same despite disparate outcomes. (City of San Antonio, Equity Office, 2017)
Climate Change in San Antonio - Greenhouse Gases
The Greenhouse Effect
Greenhouse gases (GHG) are essential to life on Earth as they provide a “blanket” in our atmosphere that traps heat and regulates the Earth’s temperature. GHGs are released naturally in our environment for this very reason. However, when we burn fossil fuels to power our homes, businesses, and automobiles and place material in our landfill to decompose, we increase the level of greenhouse gases. This increase in gases has essentially created a much thicker “blanket”, making it harder for heat to release, reducing in higher global temperatures that have led to disruptions in the Earth’s climate.
Climate Change in San Antonio - Greenhouse Gases
Greenhouse Gases
Some GHGs like carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N20) are naturally occurring, but are enhanced from human activity, such as driving our cars; lighting, heating, and cooling our homes and businesses; and sending waste to the landfill. Other GHGs like hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs) and sulfur hexafluoride are man-made.
For more information about GHGs from MIT, visit the following:
The Greenhouse Effect and Us
Climate Change in San Antonio - Greenhouse Gases
How Climate Change Impacts San Antonio
In the past few years, San Antonio has experienced and witnessed extreme events in our region. Because of our changing climate, we can expect this to be more common in our future. Events like these are an indication of this change:
- Hurricane Harvey
- the most expensive hail storm in Texas history (totaling nearly $1.4 billion in losses)
- going from drought to excessive flooding
We are building solutions to prepare our city for climate change. Along with its partners and members of the community, the City of San Antonio has developed a Climate Action and Adaptation Plan, SA Climate Ready. Visit our website to learn what we are doing and get involved!
Climate Change in San Antonio - Greenhouse Gases
Feeling the Heat in San Antonio
San Antonio already feels the impacts of climate change, especially during the summer heat. Climate projections show that our future will be hotter and dryer. By 2040, summer maximum temperatures will be 4°F higher on average than they are today—and annually, we will experience 24 more days over 100°F (that is an additional month of high heat) and receive 3” less rain.
Climate Change in San Antonio - Greenhouse Gases
Compounding Effects
By 2040, San Antonians can expect to experience more frequent and longer droughts, less time outdoors due to hotter days and more severe weather and storms. All of these changes will also cause our community to spend more money on cooling our homes and businesses.
San Antonio's Community GHG Emissions
Why We Measure GHG Emissions
Looking at GHG emissions throughout the community helps us understand where there is room for improvement and where our efficiency and reduction efforts have succeeded.
UNIT | GHGs have a natural heat trapping capacity which varies by gas. Humans produce more carbon dioxide (CO2) than any other GHG. We count emissions of GHGs based on how each GHG’s heat trapping capacity compares to CO2s. This is called the CO2 equivalent (CO2e). We measure GHGs in metric tons of CO2e (mtCO2e) | MTCO2eMetric Tons of Carbon Dioxide Equivalent |
| GHGs have a natural heat trapping capacity which varies by gas. Humans produce more carbon dioxide (CO2) than any other GHG. We count emissions of GHGs based on how each GHG’s heat trapping capacity compares to CO2s. This is called the CO2 equivalent (CO2e). We measure GHGs in metric tons of CO2e (mtCO2e) | MTCO2eMetric Tons of Carbon Dioxide Equivalent |
Community GHG Emissions
GHGs by Sector
There are many activities that create GHGs in San Antonio, but just a few sectors tend to dominate our emissions profile. In 2019, nearly half of all emissions in San Antonio were related to the use of energy in buildings. This includes lighting, heating and cooling, and powering the appliances and devices we use.
Transportation activities were the second largest source of GHG emissions, primarily from private automobile traffic. These two sectors make up 84% of our total GHGs.
Community GHG Emissions
Our Targets
Avoiding the most serious climate change impacts will require significant emissions reductions over the next decade. As one of the fastest growing cities in the nation, San Antonio has an added challenge of reducing emissions alongside the projected increase in population. To meet the goal of carbon neutrality by 2050, San Antonio has set the following interim goals:
| Target Sector: Percent reduction from 2016 emissions |
2030 | 2040 | 2050 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total Emissions | 41% | 71% | 100% |
| Stationary Emissions | 41% | 74% | 100% |
| Transportation Emissions | 47% | 75% | 100% |
| Solid Waste Emissions | 32% | 54% | 100% |
| Water Supply Emissions | <1% | <1% | 100% |
| Industrial Process Emissions | 23% | 56% | 100% |
Community GHG Emissions
Annual Totals
Since 2013, our total GHGs have reduced by 7%. It's an indicator that we're moving in the right direction, however more action is needed to stay on track.
Hitting our reduction targets will mean that we’ll need to do more than grow more efficiently and use more renewable electricity. To create the deep reductions we're aiming for, we'll need to retrofit our existing buildings and transportation systems to consume less energy while they transition to use clean electricity.
Community GHG Emissions
Recent Trends
From 2016 to 2019, our total greenhouse gases shrank by about 0.2%. There were big changes within specific sectors, offsetting increases with reductions, leading to a flat trajectory.
Our energy use in both electricity and natural gas has gone up, though GHGs from this sector have fallen slightly due to cleaner electricity. The largest overall increase came from the transportation sector due to the increased use of private vehicles.
You can explore changes by clicking on and off the individual sectors in the chart legend to the side.
Community GHG Emissions
Cleaner Electricity
Within buildings, our use of electricity makes up the majority of energy use and the resulting emissions. Electricity is responsible for 83% of our building related GHGs which means that changes in renewable energy will have a big impact on our overall inventory.
As you can see in this chart, emissions from electricity use declined by 8% between 2016 and 2019, even though electricity use rose by over 2%. In the future we expect that usage will continue to rise as we shift heating energy and transportation to cleaner energy sources. We'll be counting on more renewable energy coming online, as well as conservation, to ensure that total GHGs from electricity continue to decline and bring down GHGs from other sectors as well.
Community GHG Emissions
Increased Gas Use
Between 2016 and 2019, total building energy emissions dropped by 397,917 mtCO2e, but as you can see from the chart, natural gas use and emissions increased across all three sectors over the same time period.
This illustrates that we cannot only rely on developing renewable energy, we also need to reduce the consumption of other types of energy, including natural gas.
Community GHG Emissions
Transport Vehicles and Fuels
Transportation is the second largest source of GHGs in San Antonio and it is also the sector that is growing most quickly with private vehicle use growing 5% from 2016 to 2019. Reversing that trend will require developing San Antonio to support active transportation modes, maintaining strong transit connections and supporting the shift to electric vehicles (EVs).
Currently, gasoline and diesel dominate the fuels we use in transportation; however, electricity is quickly rising in usage. Click the chart legend to "turn off" gasoline and diesel to reveal the GHGs from EVs we see today.
As EVs take a larger share of vehicle miles traveled, we expect that GHGs from them won't grow significantly as this transition will happen with progressively cleaner electricity.
You can make a difference!
Remember that you, as a customer, can influence the energy choices a retail store makes! All you need to do is tell them you care about energy efficient technologies and sustainable energy supply. CPS Energy even has a program that will help them get started!
Community GHG Emissions
City Accepted into Carbon Disclosure Project's Catalyze Cohort
The Office of Sustainability is one of 12 local governments across the U.S. that was accepted into the Carbon Disclosure Project’s (CDP) Catalyze Cohort to build skill sets in project conceptualization, project development, and financing mechanisms in 2022. The CDP cohort will workshop transportation and green infrastructure projects that are seeking financing or develop funding strategies. The cohort is spread across multiple departments including Public Works, Transportation, and Innovation, as well as the Southwest Research Institute, to help spread knowledge and resources cross-functionally.
San Antonio is on CDP’s Cities A List with an A- grade for publicly disclosing a city-wide emissions inventory, an emissions reduction target and renewable energy target, a published a climate action plan, and a climate risk and vulnerability assessment and climate adaptation plan.
Municipal GHG Emissions
Municipal Operations Inventory
Tracking the GHGs from our own municipal operations helps the City of San Antonio prioritize and make improvements to improve the efficiency of our own buildings, vehicles, and other equipment.
In 2019 our municipal operations GHGs totaled 272,675 mtCO2e, about 1.5% of the city-wide total. The largest contributor in our case comes from landfills, depicted in pink, which emit methane - a greenhouse gas that is 28x more powerful at driving global warming than CO2.
Municipal GHG Emissions
Reductions Achieved
Between 2016 and 2019, we achieved significant changes across municipal operations. We also saw a drop of over 5,000 mtCO2e from streetlights and traffic signals, and nearly a 20,000 mtCO2e drop from buildings and facilities.
Improving building operations provides opportunities for significant reductions, and the City of San Antonio is working to track and report our energy use better to hold ourselves accountable to the goals of the SA Climate Ready Plan. Learn more about our building energy benchmarking practices on our website and through our Municipal Benchmarking Report.
Climate Change in San Antonio - Community GHG Emissions
Every San Antonian Can Take Action to Reduce their GHG Emissions!
There are many ways you can reduce your contribution to San Antonio's greenhouse gas emissions.
