San José Community Leads on Climate Change

Climate Smart San José (Climate Smart), adopted by the City Council in 2018, lays out how we are doing our part to address climate change. It’s a community wide initiative to reduce air pollution, save water and improve quality of life.

Climate Smart is one of the first detailed city plans for reaching the targets of the international Paris Agreement. To get there, Climate Smart set ambitious goals for energy, water, transportation and local jobs. In November 2021, City Council set a goal of communitywide carbon neutrality by 2030, thereby accelerating Climate Smart, and approved the City's Pathway to Carbon Neutrality by 2030 in June 2022. This one-page flyer provides a summary of the Pathway.

We’re grateful to our stakeholders and community partners who have supported Climate Smart San José and participated in its creation.

Stay up-to-date

Do you want to stay up to date with Climate Smart programs and initiatives? Complete this online form to be added to our email notification list.

Newsletter: San José Climate Chronicles

• Issue 1 (October 2024)

Rebates and Incentives

Find out about local, regional, statewide, and federal incentives to help you electrify your home at San José Clean Energy Electric Homes and electrify your ride at San Jose Clean Energy Electric Vehicles.

How can you help?

Sign up for the Climate Smart Challenge! It’s a fun and easy way to track your carbon footprint, lower your bills and make a difference in your community.

Our Climate Smart community playbooks also offer useful tips and resources for being Climate Smart (English | Spanish | Vietnamese).

Join the Climate Smart Stakeholders monthly meeting (virtual) to hear about the latest climate initiatives, share your insights, and ask questions. Email to be added to the meeting invitation and receive meeting agendas and notes.

Request a presentation to learn more about Climate Smart. Please complete this form to request a Climate Smart presentation for your community group, school, neighborhood association, or business.

Check out additional resources to help reduce your carbon footprint, whether you are a resident, business or civic agency.

Notable Achievements

• 2022: Largest U.S. city to remove minimum parking requirements for new developments
• 2022: One of the largest U.S. cities to adopt a carbon neutrality by 2030 goal
• 2019: Largest city to adopt a building reach code incentivizing all-electric new construction and then (2020) prohibiting natural gas infrastructure in all new construction with minimal exceptions
• 2018: Approved largest single jurisdiction community choice aggregation program (purchasing cleaner power for our community in the state 

Recognition

For our climate work, San José is proud to have received recognition from various organizations: 

• One of only 119 cities worldwide on the 2023 CDP A List
• Sixth greenest city in the U.S. according to WalletHub's 2023 ranking
• The Climate Registry's Climate Leadership Award (2023) and Assemblymember Gail Pellerin's Women of the Year Award (for climate work; 2024) to Kerrie Romanow, San José chief sustainability officer and Environmental Services Department Director
• Ranked fifth in the nation for solar power per person, and eighth in the nation for total solar capacity, in the 2022 Shining Cities Report 
• Ranked 9 out of 75 of the largest U.S. cities in the 2024 ACEEE City Clean Energy Scorecard
• Awarded all badges by the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy
• Ranked 18 on 2024 ENERGY STAR Top Cities list with the most ENERGY STAR Certified Buildings

Resources

• Climate Smart Executive Summary (English | Spanish | Vietnamese)
• Climate Smart Full Plan (including technical appendix)
• Climate Smart Data Dashboard
• Green Vision (archive)
• Pathway to Carbon Neutrality by 2030
• Carbon Neutral by 2030: Resolution 80284

contact us

If you have any questions or suggestions, please email ClimateSmart@sanjoseca.gov.