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City of Pleasanton—Hidden Canyon Residences and Preserve Draft EIR Greenhouse Gas Emissions FirstCarbon Solutions 3.7-1 https://adecinnovations.sharepoint.com/sites/PublicationsSite/Shared Documents/Publications/Client (PN-JN)/2148/21480016/EIR/3 - Draft EIR/21480016 Sec03-07 GHG.docx 3.7 - Greenhouse Gas Emissions 3.7.1 - Introduction This section describes existing climate conditions as well as the relevant regulatory framework. The “Environmental Setting” provides a description of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and the current state of the climate. The “Regulatory Framework” provides a description of relevant federal, State and local regulatory policies that serve to reduce GHG emissions and are applicable to the proposed project. 3.7.2 - Environmental Setting The Earth’s temperature is rising,1 and although the global climate has varied over the long-range time scale, there is strong scientific consensus that the rapid heating in recent decades is both unusual and caused by emissions of GHGs from human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels, including coal and oil.2 Gases that trap heat in the atmosphere are referred to as GHGs. The effect is analogous to the way a greenhouse retains heat. Prominent GHGs contributing to the greenhouse effect are carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons, chlorofluorocarbons, and sulfur hexafluoride. Atmospheric concentrations of CO2, the most prominent GHG, have been increasing rapidly in recent decades, from approximately 280 parts per million (ppm) before the start of the Industrial Revolution in the 1760s to more than 400 ppm as of 2013.3 According to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), it is extremely unlikely that global climate change of the past 50 years can be explained without the contribution from human activities. As the concentration of gases continues to increase in the atmosphere, the earth’s temperature has increased by about 1.2 to 1.4°F (degrees Fahrenheit) since 1900.4 Even if GHG emissions could be reduced to zero overnight, global temperatures will continue to rise in future years due to the build- up of GHGs that have already accumulated in the atmosphere and the oceans. As future emissions increase the atmospheric concentrations of CO2 and other GHGs, the impacts of the warming greenhouse effect are projected to steadily worsen. Global climate change is not confined to a particular project area and is generally accepted as the consequence of global industrialization over the last 200 years. A typical project, even a very large one, does not generate enough GHG emissions on its own to influence global climate change significantly; hence, the issue of global climate change is, by definition, a cumulative environmental impact. Therefore, this section discusses the proposed project’s contribution to the cumulative GHG impact. 1 National Centers for Environmental Information, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). 2024. Website: https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/monitoring/climate-at-a-glance/global/time-series. Accessed March 6, 2025. 2 K. Myers et al. "Consensus revisited: quantifying scientific agreement on climate change and climate expertise among Earth scientists 10 years later." Environmental Research Letters, Vol.16 No. 10, 104030 (20 October 2021). doi: 10.1088/1748- 9326/ac2774. 3 Global Monitoring Library, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). 2024. Website: https://gml.noaa.gov/ccgg/trends/. Accessed March 6, 2025. 4 National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). 2024. World of Change: Global Temperatures. Website: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/world-of-change/global-temperatures. Accessed March 6, 2025.