Two years after adopting emergency climate action plan, Portland lags behind on goals

It’s been two years since the Portland City Council adopted a three-year Climate Crisis Work Plan to guide the city’s climate change response under its 2020 Climate Crisis Declaration. The plan outlines 47 actions to reduce emissions across sectors including transportation, industry and buildings, and spans 10 city offices. So far, only two of the goals have been met.

Last week, the Portland Office of Planning and Sustainability (BPS) released this year’s Work Plan Progress Report, detailing priorities that have been met as well as areas where the city is facing obstacles.

In June 2020, the Portland City Council declared a climate emergency, citing dangers from increasing extreme weather events in the Pacific Northwest and the “existential threat” that global warming poses to “our community and economy.”

“Fighting (the climate crisis) will require government agencies, businesses and residents to treat it as the crisis it is by taking bold steps to meet Portland’s carbon reduction goals and build a healthy, resilient city where everyone can thrive,” the 2020 Climate Crisis Declaration stated.

The Climate Crisis Declaration included a goal of achieving net-zero emissions in the city by 2050, with a 50 percent reduction (compared to 1990 levels) by 2030. The city is currently not on track to meet those goals. While the city’s climate leaders are proud of what they have accomplished so far, much work remains if Portland wants to meet its climate goals.

Two years later, city leaders approved a three-year action plan to actually achieve those goals. The city created a Climate Emergency Workplan that outlined 47 priority actions to “put Portland on track to achieve our collective decarbonization and community resilience goals.” The workplan, a multi-office effort led by BPS, includes actions to decarbonize Portland’s transportation system, develop zoning plans that encourage walkability in neighborhoods, improve the city’s tree canopy, and more.

When the work plan was adopted, some climate activists were skeptical. In addition to concerns about some of the specific proposals, critics said the plan was overall too vague and did not include clear enough metrics for achieving the goals.

For example, the 2024 Work Plan states that the city will achieve its goal of “making freight transportation cleaner” in the upcoming fiscal year, and the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) is launching a pilot for a zero-emission delivery zone and plans to apply for future federal funding for the project. However, without any specific benchmarks, it’s unclear how the plan defines “cleaner.” Similarly vague language is used for other action items throughout the Work Plan.

“After reviewing the work plan, it became clear that providing the funding and workforce needed to protect our future by addressing the climate crisis is still not seen as a priority in Portland,” the Portland Youth Climate Council wrote in public testimony in 2022. “This plan is NO “deliberate – it contains no considered steps, makes no considered investments, and has nothing in it that warrants considered policy changes.”

Two years later, skepticism about the plan remains, especially as the impacts of the climate crisis become more severe. Meanwhile, climate leaders in the city say that while they acknowledge the plan has flaws compared to the scale of the problem, they remain confident about the future of climate action in Portland.

“We still have time to prevent the worst impacts of climate change if we take the actions outlined in the work plan, but the window is getting smaller,” reads a news release about the latest progress report. “We have the plan, the necessary technologies, and the time to change the course for Portlanders today and in the future. We simply need to do more.”

Progress and setbacks

According to the 2024 progress report on the work plan, city staff did not complete any priority actions last year. The report noted that most actions were “ongoing and moving forward” last year, “indicating that they will continue beyond this plan.” About six actions are on track to be completed by the end of the next fiscal year, while some actions have been delayed. Only two actions have been completed since the City Council adopted the work plan in 2022.

One of the actions the city considers complete is a plan to replace diesel fuel at gas stations with renewable fuels. Two years ago, the City Council approved updates to the city’s Renewable Fuel Standard, mandating that every gallon of diesel fuel sold in Portland be 99 percent renewable by 2030, with more biofuels sold at gas stations each year by then.

The renewable fuels initiative was one of the more controversial proposals when the work plan was originally adopted, with many people providing public testimony urging the city not to rely on renewable fuels, which come with their own environmental issues, instead of decarbonizing the transportation system.

Another action the city has deemed “complete” is a proposal to “make new construction EV-ready.” This was accomplished by the city’s adoption of an EV-ready code update that requires most new multifamily residential buildings to include EV charging capabilities in their parking spaces.

Lynn Handlin, a climate activist who was critical of the climate action plan when the city approved it two years ago, said she believes the two completed actions have had limited benefits.

“(The city’s) Renewable Fuel Standard is not the panacea they claim. Some of the metrics they used were flawed,” Handlin said Mercury in a recent email. “Some of the EV-friendly code changes have been helpful. But overall, transportation needs to shift away from personal cars and toward mass transit, biking, and walking. The city hasn’t accomplished much in that area.”

PBOT’s 2022 count found that Portland’s cycling population is down more than 40 percent from 2014, when cycling numbers peaked. Last year’s count showed a nearly 5 percent increase from the previous year, but cycling is still lower than transportation activists would like. The climate emergency work plan includes an action item to “make low-emission travel options safe, accessible, and convenient for all Portlanders,” but without clear benchmarks, it will be difficult to gauge the initiative’s success.

Handlin also criticizes the work plan, which focuses on the Portland Clean Energy Community Benefits Fund (PCEF) as the city’s primary driver of climate progress. She said Mercury believes the city is taking unfair credit for PCEF’s accomplishments, especially given the fact that some elected leaders have sought to “loot PCEF funds to fill gaps in the city’s budget.”

Last year, the City Council adopted PCEF’s first Climate Investment Plan, which outlines how the program will spend $750 million over five years to promote climate solutions, especially for Portland’s underserved populations. PCEF will also allocate an additional $380 million to city offices for climate-focused programs.

While PCEF spending is targeted at many of the original actions outlined in the work plan, the Clean Energy Fund has undergone significant evolution since the work plan was adopted two years ago. PCEF leaders point out that the program is intended to help the city’s most vulnerable communities respond to and adapt to climate change and should not be expected to be the primary source of funding for all of Portland’s efforts to address the climate crisis.

But the progress report shows a heavy reliance on PCEF to fund priority work plan activities. The City Council has allocated just $2.4 million in one-time general fund funding to advance climate work plan goals. The city also touts securing $7 million in external grant funding, mostly from the federal government, for priority work plan activities. By comparison, PCEF plans to allocate about $1.2 billion for climate work over the next five years.

“Overall, it appears that many of the city’s claims of real successes, not just more research and delays, were actually PCEF successes,” Handlin said. “The claims of these success stories are seriously flawed.”

The Future of the Climate Action Plan

Given the broad goals of the original work plan and the plan’s tight, three-year timeline, it’s no surprise that most of the priority actions have yet to be completed. But city climate leaders say their work will continue — and perhaps with greater efficiency, thanks to upcoming changes in city government.

In a note accompanying the latest progress report on the work plan, Vivian Satterfield, Portland’s chief sustainability officer, outlined some of the next steps for the project.

“This period of transition for the city gives us an opportunity to look clearly at the past in order to shape the future,” Satterfield wrote. “Because my role is in the city administrator’s office, I am eager to continue to work with climate practitioners across service areas.”

Satterfield said the city’s climate team has “upcoming support” from the upcoming Sustainability and Climate Commission, which will create Portland’s next climate action plan. She also noted a pending audit of the auditor’s office’s climate justice effectiveness, which “will certainly further inform the work that lies ahead.”

Portland’s new government structure, which will allow city councilors to work together across different areas rather than being confined to their assigned offices, could also provide more room for effective climate action, especially given how many current city council candidates have listed climate change as one of their top priorities.

Despite the potential new opportunities for action, Satterfield said she sees a need for urgency to take action.

“The longer we delay action, the more we increase the risks and costs of climate change,” Satterfield wrote. “Let this year’s Climate Emergency Workplan progress report serve as a reminder that we have no time to waste. We cannot hesitate to initiate the major changes needed to ensure a livable future for current and future generations.”