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Hana Japan Restaurant Project <br />Initial Study/Mitigated Negative Declaration <br />46 <br />May 2025 <br />VIII. GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS. <br />Would the project: <br />Potentially <br />Significant <br />Impact <br />Less Than <br />Significant <br />with <br />Mitigation <br />Incorporated <br />Less-Than- <br />Significant <br />Impact <br />No <br />Impact <br />a. Generate greenhouse gas emissions, either directly or <br />indirectly, that may have a significant impact on the <br />environment? <br />    <br />b. Conflict with an applicable plan, policy or regulation <br />adopted for the purpose of reducing the emissions of <br />greenhouse gasses? <br />    <br /> <br />Discussion <br />a,b. Emissions of GHGs contributing to global climate change are attributable in large part to <br />human activities associated with the industrial/manufacturing, utility, transportation, <br />residential, and agricultural sectors. Therefore, the cumulative global emissions of GHGs <br />contributing to global climate change can be attributed to every nation, region, and city, <br />and virtually every individual on Earth. An individual project’s GHG emissions are at a <br />micro-scale level relative to global emissions and effects to global climate change; <br />however, an individual project could result in a cumulatively considerable incremental <br />contribution to a significant cumulative macro-scale impact. As such, impacts related to <br />emissions of GHG are inherently considered cumulative impacts. <br /> <br />Implementation of the proposed project would cumulatively contribute to increases of GHG <br />emissions. Estimated GHG emissions attributable to future development would be <br />primarily associated with increases of carbon dioxide (CO2) and, to a lesser extent, other <br />GHG pollutants, such as methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) associated with area <br />sources, mobile sources or vehicles, utilities (electricity), water usage, and the generation <br />of solid waste. The primary source of GHG emissions for the project would be mobile <br />source emissions. The common unit of measurement for GHG is expressed in terms of <br />annual metric tons of CO2 equivalents (MTCO2e/yr). <br /> <br />The proposed project is located within the jurisdictional boundaries of BAAQMD. The most <br />recent BAAQMD Air Quality Guidelines were released in April 2023.22 The updated GHG <br />thresholds address more recent climate change legislation, including Senate Bill (SB) 32, <br />Executive Order (EO) B-55-18, and EO S-03-05, and provide qualitative thresholds related <br />to Buildings and Transportation. <br /> <br />Construction GHG emissions are a one-time release and are, therefore, not typically <br />expected to generate a significant contribution to global climate change. Neither the City <br />nor BAAQMD has an adopted threshold of significance for construction-related GHG <br />emissions. Therefore, such emissions do not require quantification. Nonetheless, the <br />proposed project’s construction GHG emissions, as well as operational emissions, have <br />been estimated using CalEEMod under the same assumptions discussed in Section III, <br />Air Quality, of this IS/MND (see Appendix A). The emissions estimates prepared for the <br />proposed project determined that unmitigated construction of the project would result in <br />total GHG emissions of 447 MTCO2e over the entire construction period. <br /> <br />Potential impacts related to operational GHG emissions resulting from implementation of <br />the proposed project are considered in comparison with BAAQMD’s adopted thresholds <br />of significance below. While the BAAQMD’s adopted thresholds of significance for GHG <br /> <br />22 Bay Area Air Quality Management District. 2022 California Environmental Quality Act Guidelines. April 2023.