August 12, 2025 – City Council
ESD 23-01 Climate Budgeting
Update
2City of Sunnyvale – ESD 23-01 Climate Budgeting Update - 2025 Agenda
Background
Climate Budgeting Concept
Climate Budgeting Approaches
Pilot in FY 25/26 Budget
Recommended Approach
3City of Sunnyvale – ESD 23-01 Climate Budgeting Update - 2025 Jan-Jun
2023
Jul-Dec
2023
Jan-Jun
2024
Jul-Dec
2024
Jan-June
2025
Jul-Dec
2025
Background
SI Sponsored by
Sustainability
Commission,
Ranked by
Council
SI Funded in
FY 23/24
Budget, Kick-
off
CAP
update
• Proposed, Sponsored, Ranked and funded in FY 23/24 process • Est 18 months to complete
• Completed in-house
• Key elements: research and evaluate climate budgeting approach for Sunnyvale Presentation
to
Sustainability
Commission
and Council ESD staff on ML
FIN staff turnover
Climate Budgeting Concept
5City of Sunnyvale – ESD 23-01 Climate Budgeting Update - 2025 40%
23%
31%
6%
• A tool to integrate climate commitments
into funded, measurable actions.
• A way to operationalize the Climate Action
Playbook.
• An approach to prioritize high-impact
emissions reduction projects.
• A method to embed climate targets into
budget decision-making processes.
Climate Budgeting
Source: C40Cities
6City of Sunnyvale – ESD 23-01 Climate Budgeting Update - 2025 How to Operationalize Climate Budgeting
Source: C40Cities and Commissioner Kristel Wickham
Integrate Sustainability Staff
Involve All Departments
Start with Qualitative Assessments
Be Flexible and Adaptive
Communicate to the Public
7City of Sunnyvale – ESD 23-01 Climate Budgeting Update - 2025 Example of Operationalizing Climate Action in Sunnyvale Policy
• Electric Vehicle (EV) First
Policy
• Purchasing Policy
notification applied to
Amazon products
Projects
• 835390 - Peery Park Rides
Shuttle Program (Move 3.F)
• 832750 - City Maintained
Tree Inventory (Move 4.M)
Climate Budgeting Approaches
9City of Sunnyvale – ESD 23-01 Climate Budgeting Update - 2025 Climate Budgeting Approaches by City
City Integrated Key Highlights
Oslo, Norway
Advanced/
Institutionalized
2016
• Each department reports climate impacts linked to their budgets • Use of detailed emissions accounting frameworks
• Budget linked to Oslo’s Climate and Energy Strategy
• Mandatory climate reporting as part of budget approval New York City
Developing/
Expanding
2021 – 2022
• Detailed project-level climate spending and impact estimates • Publicly accessible and transparent
• Includes both adaptation and mitigation expenditures
Paris, France
Developing/
Piloting
2014 – 2016
• Citizens propose and vote on projects
• Projects are classified as “favorable” (green, sustainable, climate-positive) or “unfavorable” (high emissions, resource-intensive)
• A significant share of the budget reserved for favorable projects • Regular public reporting on project outcomes
Flagstaff,
Arizona
Early/ Aligned
2019 – 2021
• Budget evaluated against emissions and resilience goals • Priority-Based Budgeting (PBB) framework used to align spending with community and climate priorities
• Annual climate alignment reporting
10City of Sunnyvale – ESD 23-01 Climate Budgeting Update - 2025 Approach 1: Climate Assessment Guide – Paris, France
• The Institute for Climate Economics (I4CE) methodology provides a systematic line-by- line analysis of the city’s budget using an action-based rating framework.
Source: I4CE - https://www.i4ce.org/en/
11City of Sunnyvale – ESD 23-01 Climate Budgeting Update - 2025 Approach 2: City of Flagstaff, Arizona
•Sustainability Director participates early in
fiscal budgeting process.
•Flagstaff transitioned to a Priority-Based
Budgeting (PBB) framework.
•Flagstaff aligns programs to their seven City
Council and Community Priorities.
•Staff developed alignment questions and rate
programs against their priorities.
Source: City of Flagstaff
12City of Sunnyvale – ESD 23-01 Climate Budgeting Update - 2025 Flagstaff, Arizona PBB Dashboard
Snow Operations – 0
City Facilities Custodial – 1
Residential and Commercial Trash Collection – 2
Neighborhood Engagement and Anti-Litter Events – 3
Transportation Planning - 4
Pilot: FY 25/26 Projects Budget Cycle
14City of Sunnyvale – ESD 23-01 Climate Budgeting Update - 2025 Supports Council Policy and Strategic Priorities
Focused on Capital Projects
Optimizes revenue sources and uses with discipline and vision Meets all legal requirements
All funds balanced to ten and twenty years per City Charter and Council Policy FY 2025/26 Budget Principles
Responsive
Government
Welcoming
Community
Sustainable
City
Housing
Solutions
Modern
Infrastructure
15City of Sunnyvale – ESD 23-01 Climate Budgeting Update - 2025 FY 2025/26 Projects Climate Action Check Box
Pilot: FY 25/26 Projects Budget
•A new project category titled "Climate
Action Related" was added as a project
parameter as part of the FY 2025/26
Budget cycle
•Not widely used, needs better
introduction and explanation
16City of Sunnyvale – ESD 23-01 Climate Budgeting Update - 2025 FY 2025/26 Adopted Budget Projects marked "Climate Action Related" Project FY 2025/26 Budget 20-Year Budget
831290 – Climate Action Plan
Implementation
$525,000 $1,305,000
837140 – Construction & Demolition
Program RFP
$60,000 $60,000
837170 – SMaRT Station Energy Usage
Assessment
$50,000 $50,000
837440 – Producing Recycled Water $1,425,000 $2,850,000 837450 – Recycled Water Pipeline
Expansion
$0 $1,550,000
Total $2,060,000 $5,815,000
Recommended Approach for Sunnyvale
18City of Sunnyvale – ESD 23-01 Climate Budgeting Update - 2025 Staff Recommended Approach
Sunnyvale Climate Budget Approach
Track spending on Climate Action Plan supportive projects Introduce CAP checkbox with Strategy subcategories
Develop understanding of spending per CAP Strategy
Examine spending over time per Strategy, align with CAP GHG targets Sustainability considerations integrated into decision making process Reporting: Include in Annual CAP Updates and on Scoreboard 19City of Sunnyvale – ESD 23-01 Climate Budgeting Update - 2025 Sunnyvale Climate Budget Approach
• Sustainability team preps
with Finance for training
on CAP checkbox
• Finance Team hosts
budget kick-off meetings
and introduces CAP
checkbox
• Sustainability team hosts
CAP checkbox training
• Sustainability staff review
Projects list for CAP
alignment
• Finance and Sustainability
staff summarize all
climate-related budget
items in annual budget
reports for transparency
Sept-Oct Oct-Dec Dec-May
Projects Budget Cycle (FY 27/28):
20City of Sunnyvale – ESD 23-01 Climate Budgeting Update - 2025 Not Recommended for Sunnyvale
• Costly
• Time intensive
• Minimal Impact
Quantification of emissions per
project
• Software required
• Integration with current process/software unlikely
Prioritizing or deprioritizing projects
based on alignment with CAP
21City of Sunnyvale – ESD 23-01 Climate Budgeting Update - 2025 July 21, 2025, SC Meeting Feedback
The Sustainability Commission generally supported staff’s recommended approach.
Consideration of a checkbox or some way to track projects as unsupportive of Climate Action Playbook:
• “favorable vs unfavorable”
• “thumbs up vs thumbs down”
Consider how to display or share the summary info with the public outside of the budget summary.
Council Feedback
23City of Sunnyvale – ESD 23-01 Climate Budgeting Update - 2025 Does Council support Staff’s Recommended
approach?
• Any feedback on this approach?
• If yes, does Council support closing ESD 23-01?
Discussion
Thank you!
Resources
26City of Sunnyvale – ESD 23-01 Climate Budgeting Update - 2025 Resource List
• C40 Cities: Climate Budgeting Programme - C40 Cities
• Flagstaff – https://www.resourcex.net/hubfs/Flagstaff%20Case%20Study%20(Final).pdf • New York City - https://www.nyc.gov/assets/omb/downloads/pdf/exec24-nyccb.pdf • OpenData, Flagstaff - https://openpbbdata.net/Flagstaff/ • Oslo, Norway - https://www.c40knowledgehub.org/s/article/Oslo-s-Climate-Budget?language=en_US • The Institute for Climate Economics (I4CE) - https://www.i4ce.org/wp-content/uploads/I4CE-Budget-climate- assessment-methodology.pdf