San Francisco’s renewable energy program called CleanPowerSF is one of seven recipients of the C40 Cities Bloomberg Philanthropies Award that recognizes significant action taken across the world to address climate change.
The award was announced Thurday at the C40 World Mayors Summit in Copenhagen, according to a statement from Mayor London Breed.
“When I first helped to launch CleanPowerSF as a Supervisor, I knew it had the potential to make a transformative change for this City,” Breed said. “We are seeing significant reductions in emission levels and are well on our way to meeting our climate action goals. We will continue to push forward, working with our allies in the C40 Cities coalition to find new and innovative solutions to the challenge of climate change.”
The announcement credited CleanPowerSF as playing a “major role” in The City’s reduction of greenhouse gas emissions 36 percent below 1990 levels. The program was planned for more than a decade before launching as it faced setbacks due to PG&E opposition and political feuds.
CleanPowerSF launched in 2016 and is operated by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. Power customers in San Francisco were automatically enrolled in the program to receive electricity supplied from more renewable resources than electricity provided by PG&E. The commmunity choice aggregation program serves more than 376,000 customers in San Francisco.
SFPUC general manager Harlan Kelley said that “we’re honored to be recognized with such a respected award.”
“Building on our 100-year legacy of providing clean energy to San Francisco, we launched CleanPowerSF to provide more power options to our residents and businesses, who share our commitment toward a more sustainable future,” Kelley said.
CleanPowerSF won in the category of “The Future We Want Requires Transformative Change” and was one of seven winners among 195 climate action projects submitted for recognition this year to C40 Cities.
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