San Diego, California

Population: 1.38 million

With almost 1.4 million residents, the City of San Diego is the second largest city in California and the eighth largest city in the United States. San Diego is home to several prestigious universities and research institutions, helping it become a center for the tech, biotech, and health industries, and also hosts the second largest U.S. naval base in the country. San Diego shares a border with Tijuana, Mexico and is home to a vibrant binational community that makes up more than one-third of the city’s population, contributing significantly to the culture and history of the city and the broader region. 

San Diego released its first climate action plan in 2015, in which the City committed to achieving 100% clean electricity by 2035–one of the first cities in the country to make a commitment to achieving zero carbon electricity. In August 2022, the City of San Diego adopted an updated Climate Action Plan (CAP), which sets the goal of net zero emissions citywide by 2035. This ambitious plan strengthens San Diego’s goals and makes the City a national leader on climate. Recognizing that building sector emissions must come down quickly to achieve its goals, the CAP commits to decarbonizing the built environment by phasing out 90% of natural gas usage from existing buildings by 2035. To make progress, the City has initiated work to decarbonize municipal facilities, adopt a reach code to electrify new buildings (expected to be enacted in 2024), and has begun development of a roadmap to decarbonize the existing building stock. 

BEI began working with San Diego in 2021 to support engagement with labor partners and residents on its building decarbonization strategy, recognizing the critical role that San Diego’s high-skilled workforce plays in this transition and the impact that climate change has on some of their most historically underserved communities. BEI worked with the City to complete a jobs impact analysis for several near-term building decarbonization policies and assess the potential longer-term workforce impacts of a wide-scale transition. BEI then worked with the City from 2022-2023 to develop a Building and Housing Stock Analysis to identify all buildings in the city and assess the opportunities for building decarbonization. In 2024, BEI will be working with the City to use the findings of this analysis as foundational information as they develop their existing building roadmap. 

The City of San Diego has also worked closely with its regional partners over the last decade to launch San Diego Community Power (SDCP), its community choice aggregator (CCA) that will provide cost-competitive, 100% renewable electricity—delivering on its initial climate goals and setting the stage for further climate ambition throughout the region and the nation. In 2023, BEI initiated a partnership with SDCP to develop our first research project with a CCA, which will result in a building and housing stock analysis for all jurisdictions in SDCP’s service territory and funding gap analysis that assesses the costs of electrifying all residential buildings (including necessary health, safety, and electric readiness costs), as well as the funding gaps for homes after using both existing and upcoming incentives. This analysis will be completed by the summer of 2024, when SDCP will use the findings to inform their program priorities. Building on these analyses, BEI will continue to work with both the City and SDCP throughout 2024 to help the entire San Diego region achieve their climate targets and move forward with an equitable transition toward fossil fuel-free buildings.