Recognizing the importance of local action

Recognizing the importance of local action, the City of Carmel-by-the-Sea (City) Climate Action Plan (CAP) presents measures that will serve as a road map to meeting Carmel-by-the-Sea’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction targets. It addresses government operations emissions under the City’s control, as well as community-wide emissions. The emissions reduction measures build on existing plans, policies, and practices already adopted by the City and other regulators and are consistent with statewide climate legislation. This plan is a companion document to the City’s Climate Adaptation Plan and includes several measures that not only reduce the community’s GHG emissions but also improve public health and community resilience.

How Carmel’s local action is reducing emissions associated with global tourism

The City has pervious GHG emission inventories completed by the Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments (AMBAG) for years 2005 through 2018. One of the issues of the regional travel demand model was that it allocated vehicle miles traveled (VMT) based upon City boundaries rather than determine the VMT based upon vehicle trips origins and destinations. The City has a unique tourist-based economy that attracts visitors from around the world and the City wanted to better understand the relationship between its tourist economy and the GHG emissions resulting from tourism. The City wanted to provide GHG reduction strategies that would be effective at tourist based VMT.

Michael Hendrix evaluated the different types of trips and logical origins of trips associated with tourism and vacation homes, as well as employee commutes, goods deliveries, and local trips. Once this was complete, Michael assisted the City in developing GHG reduction measures focused on the various types of vehicle trips.