Founded in 2011, Carbon Free Palo Alto (CFPA) is a citizen’s advocacy and watchdog group focused on local responses to the climate crisis. We’ve developed deep policy expertise and continue to dialog with City staff, City Council, the Utility Advisory Commission and members of the community. We have a stable membership that has responded reliably to calls for action. CFPA’s board consists of experts in the areas of energy, policy, financing and political action.
Accomplishments
For more than a decade Carbon Free Palo Alto has been working with City staff and City Council to promote forward looking, sustainable environmental policies in Palo Alto.
Carbon Free Palo Alto played a key role in the following milestones:
- 2013 – Palo Alto becomes one of the first cities in the nation to supply carbon-neutral electricity to all utility customers.
- 2016 – Palo Alto adopts an ambitious goal of 80/30, an 80% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030.
- 2019 – Palo Alto adopts energy reach codes that limit the use of natural gas for new construction.
- 2023 – Palo Alto preserves Measure E land use options for sewage plant pollution reduction efforts
- 2023 – Palo Alto starts a direct install program to install heat pump water heaters
Our work
CFPA continues to dialog with the City of Palo Alto to implement the concrete steps necessary to achieve the 80/30 goal.
We also are focused on the strategy of electrification. Our goal is mass electrification: the replacement of the majority of existing fossil-fueled (FF) devices in residential and commercial buildings in the next 10 years.