“The biggest worth of this plan is that it gives us a clear roadmap that shows, number one, the mayor is still committed. And number two, there are clear ways that we can implement it without federal support,” he said.
The plan for the first time combines the need to slash fossil fuel emissions with the need to rapidly adapt to the ways in which the climate is already changing, including rising seas and increases in extreme precipitation and heat.
It proposes doing this via two approaches, explained Brian Swett, the city’s chief climate officer: “scale and expand” and “start anew and explore.”
The largest source of emissions in the city is the burning of fossil fuels to heat and power buildings — that accounts for nearly 70% of the city’s emissions, according to the plan. Almost all of the remaining emissions come from transportation, except for minor contributions from waste and wastewater which together account for less than 1%.
When it comes to reducing emissions, the plan calls for the continuation of BERDO — a program that mandates gradual emissions reductions in large buildings over time — as well as the expansion of programs that have seen the conversion of the city’s street lamps and some residents’ stoves from gas to electric. Other proposals would lead to increased education about decarbonization as well as programs to help building owners understand how to convert off fossil fuels.
A task force would look specifically at how to decarbonize restaurants — a challenge due to their heavy reliance on gas for cooking and the high costs of transitioning to electric appliance, as well as space constraints.
The work is all in the service of cutting community-wide carbon emissions by 50% below 2005 levels in 2030 and 100% in 2050; while committing to a slightly faster pace — 60% in 2030 and 100% in 2050 — for municipal emissions.
Other goals are less explicit, including a target of implementing coastal resilience projects to address near-time flood risks on Boston’s 47-mile coastline, reducing urban heat and expanding cooling access, and minimizing the risks from severe precipitation.
If all of the existing targets at the state and city level are achieved — such as switching massive volumes of vehicles from gas to EVs and getting homeowners to convert to electricity for home heating — the city will already have reduced its emissions by 44 percent by 2030.
This plan lays out of a framework for not just achieving that target, but also for eliminating an additional 6 percent, said Oliver Sellers-Garcia, the city’s Green New discount director.
Throughout, the plan refers to a so-called “climate justice framework,” which acknowledges that climate change disproportionately burdens the most vulnerable and underserved communities and that climate action, when designed well, can repair historic inequities and reduce disparities.
The plan also acknowledges a hard truth: this work takes a lot of money. “We have a climate problem that is too big to find funding for — no one has all the money hidden in the couch cushions,“ said Sellers-Garcia. ”But what this plan will do is that it will find places where we can leverage funding.”
That includes proposals to partner with the private sector, build climate goals into the city’s annual budget, and explore developing a local climate accelerator to provide funding for certain climate initiatives.
Wu faced early criticism for failing to formulate a concrete climate plan, despite having run on a platform of a Green New discount — a vision of walkable neighborhoods, clean air, and carbon-neutrality.
Over time, some of the critics who complained of Wu’s slow start softened, finding that the administration’s incremental steps on several fronts were beginning to add up.
In fact, “it is the accumulation of a series of what you might call ‘small swings’ that will get us where we’re going,” said Amy Longsworth, executive director of the Boston Green Ribbon Commission.
Among the biggest of those swings so far: the passage of net zero carbon zoning earlier this year, which requires new buildings to achieve net zero carbon emissions upon opening and to report on the carbon emitted during construction and in the manufacturing of a building’s materials; and a 2024 requirement that all new affordable housing projects that are financed with funds from the Mayor’s Office of Housing be all-electric and fossil fuel-free.
Other steps include the creation of fare-free bus routes to incentivize drivers to instead use public transit, which will be electrified in coming years;the addition of a permanent City of Boston seat on the MBTA board of directors, following years of advocacy by the city, to influence climate-friendly policy; and the creation of the Boston Climate Council, a cross-department effort to coordinate the city’s climate work.
With the release of the new draft plan, climate advocates noted that the steps Wu have taken mark a big departure from past administrations, where major climate action often occurred via the release of ordinances, rather than on-the-ground measures.
One of the big challenges early on, Farooqi said, is that his organization and others working on climate would approach the administration with what felt like a great idea, “and they’d be like, ‘Oh yeah, we actually already started implementing that, like, six months ago, and we just haven’t told you yet.’”
What’s new, too, is that community groups have been a part of the process for developing the climate plan from early on. Even immediately, the plan has surveys built into it, and will have another draft released later this year before a final version lands in 2026.
The process “makes room for us to bring up what we don’t see,” said Kannan Thiruvengadam, executive director of Eastie Farm.
Thiruvengadam said he’s also grateful to see the city‘s commitment even as the federal government is not just scaling back its climate work but also seeking to reach into state and local governments to limit their abilities, too. “You’re actually calling it a Climate Action Plan. You’re not calling it an economic activation plan or anything like that,” he said. “I am actually grateful that there is some defiance coming out of cities like ours and states like ours.”
Sabrina Shankman can be reached at sabrina.shankman@globe.com.
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