Fort Lauderdale Net Zero Plan 2025

GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS INVENTORY  29

Science-Based GHG Reduction Targets Fort Lauderdale joined the ICLEI150 Race to Zero in early 2022. This initiative provided Fort Lauderdale with technical support to set a 2030 interim science-based emission reduction target. ICLEI’s methodology calculates the City’s “fair share” of the global GHG reduction of 50% by 2030, as recommended by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). This target is set using the 2019 community GHG baseline, population projections from the Bureau of Economic and Business Research, and the Human Development Index, and applies a calculation methodology from the World Wildlife Fund’s One Planet City Challenge. This methodology adjusts the IPCC 50% global reduction goal based on the community’s Human Development Index to produce a per-capita carbon emissions target. The methodology then multiplies that per-capita target by the projected future population to produce an absolute emissions reduction target. These targets are shown in Figure 7 .

FIGURE 7.

2030 COMMUNITY PROJECTED EMISSIONS AND 2030 SCIENCE-BASED TARGETS FOR FORT LAUDERDALE

COMPARED TO THE 2019 BASELINE

Figure 7 shows that the 2030 science-based target reduction is 54.7% below 2019 baseline emissions. This Plan’s 2030 projected emissions of a 26% reduction below the 2019 baseline is less than the science-based target reduction. Projected emissions are described in Emissions Forecasting section that follows. Although it is unlikely that the City will reach its 2030 science-based targets, the 2050 projected emissions indicate that the City will likely meet or closely approach its goal of net zero by 2050. The City aspires to meet the 2030 science-based target. However, it also acknowledges that achieving the goal is unlikely in the five years left before 2020 even if the City implemented all the strategies and actions described in this plan. Reaching the 2030 goal would require dramatic changes at the federal and international levels, which at present are unlikely to happen in the next five years. The City’s Race to Zero shows its commitment to recognize its role and responsibility to act with other to move toward net zero. The 2030 goal, also elusive, serves as a motivating force for Fort Lauderdale and other cities in the United States and around the globe to work to reach net zero.

FORT LAUDERDALE NET ZERO PLAN