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5.21 Climate Change
5.21 CLIMATE CHANGE
5.21.1 INTRODUCTION
Purpose
The County of Los Angeles Department of Regional Planning Environmental Checklist Form,
which has been prepared pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA),
requires that greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions issues be evaluated as part of the
environmental documentation process. Because the effects of GHG emissions are considered
in a global context, that is, global warming and climate change, GHG emissions are generally
addressed as a cumulative issue. However, plan-level direct and indirect impacts are also
addressed. Growth-inducing impacts and cumulative impacts are described in Sections 6.0
and 7.0 of this Environmental Impact Report (EIR), respectively. Because the topic of climate
change is most appropriately considered on a cumulative level, the impact analysis in this
EIR section is fundamentally a cumulative analysis. Therefore, the discussion in Section 7.0,
Cumulative Impacts, presents a summary of the conclusions of this section.
Summary
The County acknowledges the consensus among leading scientists that without action to
reduce GHG emissions, climate change due to global warming will pose a considerable threat
to the environment and to human health and society (DRP 2015a). The Final Unincorporated
Los Angeles County Community Climate Action Plan 2020 (CCAP) is part of the County General
Plan and was adopted along with the General Plan on October 6, 2015.
In accordance with CEQA Guidelines 15183.5(b), the CCAP provides that projects that
“demonstrate consistency with applicable CCAP actions can be determined to have a less
than significant cumulative impact on GHG emissions and climate change”. The Project’s
design concepts are consistent with the CCAP, as summarized in Table 5.21-11, Centennial
Project Compliance With Los Angeles County Community Climate Action Plan. The Project’s
Green Development Program includes elements specifically created to reduce GHG
emissions. These elements are delineated in the analysis below as project design features
(PDFs). The analysis of Project consistency with each of the CCAP goals and policies shows
that the Project is consistent with the CCAP.
Additional analysis under Threshold 21-1, and in Section 5.8, Land Use, Entitlements, and
Planning, and in Table 5.8-1, shows that the Project would not conflict with applicable goals
and policies of the Antelope Valley Area Plan (AVAP). Moreover, the analysis under
Threshold 21-2 below shows that the Project would not conflict with the Southern California
Association of Governments (SCAG) 2012–2035 Regional Transportation Plan Sustainable
Communities Strategy (RTP/SCS) and 2016–2040 RTP/SCS.
The quantification of greenhouse gas emissions as calculated through the California
Emissions Estimator Model (CalEEMod) Version 2016.3.1 estimates that the Project at
buildout in 2035 would have GHG emissions of approximately 244,379 metric tons of carbon
dioxide equivalent (MTCO2e) per year as shown in Table 5.21-1. Project GHG emissions as
R:\Projects\PAS\CEN\000306\Draft EIR\5.21 ClimateChange-051117.docx 5.21-1 Centennial Project
Draft EIR
