San Francisco updates climate plan, targets net-zero emissions by 2040

In Bayview-Hunters Point, Downtown San Francisco and the city’s older apartment stock, the next climate fight is not abstract: it is about what shows up in commute times, utility bills and the air along crowded streets. Mayor Daniel Lurie’s updated Climate Action Plan put San Francisco back on a five-year clock and kept the city’s goal of net-zero emissions by 2040.

Lurie released the plan on April 16, the first update in five years, and signed legislation to align the city’s official climate goals with the new roadmap. The announcement came during San Francisco Climate Week, which city officials said drew more than 60,000 attendees across 700 events. The Environment Department will coordinate the work across agencies, while the plan links climate policy to affordability, public health and economic opportunity.

Transportation sits at the center of the update because it accounts for 45% of San Francisco’s emissions, according to the San Francisco County Transportation Authority. The sector plan calls for electrifying all light-duty vehicles and cutting driving mileage 30% below 2019 levels by 2040. SFCTA said it helped develop the strategy with technical analysis and baseline inventory data, and it is also working on the Eco-Friendly Downtown Delivery Study, transit capital projects including The Portal and the Bayview Caltrain Station, and congestion-reduction and pricing ideas that could change how people move through the city.

Buildings remain another major pressure point. San Francisco’s Existing Buildings Energy Performance Ordinance requires annual energy benchmarking for non-residential buildings of at least 10,000 square feet and residential buildings of at least 50,000 square feet. Those larger buildings must also complete an energy audit, retrocommissioning or decarbonization plan at least once every five years, a rule designed to force action well before 2040.

The city is also pointing to measurable progress. Its 2022 greenhouse gas inventory showed emissions down 48% from 1990 levels and per-capita emissions down 53%, even as the population grew. San Francisco says it has already met its Environment Code target of cutting total greenhouse gases 40% below 1990 levels. The new plan arrives alongside the Electrify Your Home Incentive Program for CleanPowerSF customers and an earlier curbside EV charging push, part of a broader effort to make the city’s climate goals visible in neighborhoods, not just in policy documents.

San Francisco is framing the update as the next phase of a long climate record, one that helped win first place in the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ 2025 Climate Protection Awards in the large-city category. The question now is whether the city can turn that record into faster transit, cleaner buildings and lower household costs before the next five-year update arrives.