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BACKGROUND In February 2022, the City Council adopted an updated Climate Action Plan. The CAP 2.0 sets ambitious GHG reduction targets that comply with, and exceed, targets established by the State of California, including the target of achieving a 70 percent reduction in per capita GHG emissions compared to 1990 levels by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2045. The document identifies a set of 16 Primary Actions to achieve the GHG emissions reduction targets that are tailored to the Pleasanton community, considering the city's unique local constraints and opportunities. It further identifies ways to strive for GHG emissions reduction beyond the baseline target and includes a set of nine Secondary Actions that will deepen the city's commitment to taking local action and enhance community resilience to climate change. The vast majority of individual development projects do not generate sufficient GHG emissions to directly influence climate change. However, physical changes caused by a plan or project can contribute incrementally to cumulative effects that are significant, even if individual changes resulting from a plan/project are limited. As a result, cumulative impacts related to GHG emissions and climate change may be significant. Therefore, per CEQA Guidelines Section 15064.4(b), the analysis of GHG emissions under CEQA typically involves an analysis of whether a plan or project's contribution toward an impact would be cumulatively considerable. DISCUSSION GHG Thresholds Overview The CAP 2.0 is considered a "qualified" emissions reduction plan according to California Environmental Quality Act Guidelines Section 15183.5. As such, future projects (e.g., development applications) can tier from the CEQA review document (Initial Study-Negative Declaration) prepared and adopted for the Climate Action Plan. A tiered analysis is done through comparison of the project's consistency with the GHG emissions reduction strategies outlined in the CAP 2.0 to show that the project's impacts related to GHG emissions and climate change will not be cumulatively considerable. A project must also be consistent with the CAP's assumptions regarding future growth projections. A consistency checklist (Checklist) has been prepared to facilitate review process for proposed discretionary development projects that trigger environmental review. Projects that demonstrate consistency with the Checklist can streamline their CEQA review with respect to analysis of GHG impacts, and said projects will allow the City to remain on track to meet GHG reduction targets. This streamlining does not relieve a project from CEQA review more broadly, and analysis or preparation of a CEQA document may still be required to address other environmental impacts. Projects that cannot show consistency with the Checklist will be required to prepare a separate more detailed project-level GHG emissions analysis as part of their CEQA document. Staff, in consultation with professional services firm Rincon, has developed a quantitative threshold to evaluate whether a project's GHG emissions would result in Page 2 of 8