The earth’s climate is changing because of increasing greenhouse gases (GHG) in the atmosphere. The Hoboken Climate Action Plan provides a baseline carbon footprint for GHG emissions, sets achievable goals and targets for GHG emissions reductions, and identifies actions required to achieve those goals.
Net Zero Energy: The City will be net zero by 2030, and municipal government operations will be net zero by 2025. The City began purchasing 100% renewable electricity for municipal facilities in 2019. Net Zero Energy means to produce or purchase as much energy as is consumed from secure, affordable and clean energy sources.
Carbon Neutral: Hoboken will be carbon neutral by 2050, and municipal government operations will be carbon neutral by 2035. Carbon neutral means to reduce or offset all inventoried sources of carbon emissions.
Hoboken will help mitigate climate change by lowering the City’s GHG emissions beyond the targets established by the Paris Climate Agreement and achieving the Sustainable Jersey Gold Star in Energy.
These goals and actions will be re-evaluated every five years, in order to ensure that the City is taking an ambitious yet achievable path toward carbon neutrality.
The earth’s climate is changing because of increasing greenhouse gases (GHG) in the atmosphere. The Hoboken Climate Action Plan provides a baseline carbon footprint for GHG emissions, sets achievable goals and targets for GHG emissions reductions, and identifies actions required to achieve those goals.
Net Zero Energy: The City will be net zero by 2030, and municipal government operations will be net zero by 2025. The City began purchasing 100% renewable electricity for municipal facilities in 2019. Net Zero Energy means to produce or purchase as much energy as is consumed from secure, affordable and clean energy sources.
Carbon Neutral: Hoboken will be carbon neutral by 2050, and municipal government operations will be carbon neutral by 2035. Carbon neutral means to reduce or offset all inventoried sources of carbon emissions.
Hoboken will help mitigate climate change by lowering the City’s GHG emissions beyond the targets established by the Paris Climate Agreement and achieving the Sustainable Jersey Gold Star in Energy.
These goals and actions will be re-evaluated every five years, in order to ensure that the City is taking an ambitious yet achievable path toward carbon neutrality.
The Hoboken Climate Action Plan identifies GHG emissions reductions targets and recommends a series of feasible data-driven strategies and actions for meeting these targets. The Plan seeks to achieve GHG reductions in ways that improve quality of life, environmental and public health, and resilience for present and future generations of Hoboken residents.
Using the baseline established by the GHG Emissions Inventory, the Climate Action Plan will guide the City to achieving the following goals.
The City will strive to exceed these goals, which will be re-evaluated every five years, in order to ensure that the City is taking an ambitious yet achievable path toward carbon neutrality.
The Plan aims to reduce GHG emissions from major emission sources identified in the GHG emissions inventories through climate actions. The plan recommends actions that are both cost-effective and feasible.
The following climate actions have been identified as priorities to address Hoboken’s climate action goals. The full list of climate actions is provided in Section 5 of the Hoboken Climate Action Plan.
The GHG emissions inventories set the baseline (2017) which Hoboken will use to measure future GHG emissions reductions. Hoboken has two GHG inventories:
Community GHG Inventory (Community Carbon Footprint): Inventory of GHG emissions from the City of Hoboken.
Municipal Operations GHG Inventory (Municipal Carbon Footprint): Inventory of GHG emissions resulting from municipal operations. Municipal operations include energy consumption and related emissions from municipally owned and operated buildings, exterior and street lighting, and the municipal fleet, including major contracted services such as waste/recycling pickup.
The GHG inventories meet BASIC level reporting requirements set out in the Global Protocol for Community-scale GHG emissions (GPC), and use the ICLEI Clearpath tool. By using an internationally accepted reporting protocol and cloud-based tool, Hoboken can compare and benchmark results against other cities. The tool will also enable Hoboken to complete the Sustainable Jersey Community Carbon Footprint Action and Municipal Carbon Footprint Action.
The community of Hoboken has a total carbon footprint of 445,313 tonnes of CO2 equivalents (tCO2e) for its base year of 2017. The unit CO2e represents the impact of all greenhouse gases (GHGs) reported as if they were all CO2, the most common GHG.
The three largest sectors of GHG emissions include Commercial Energy, Transportation, and Residential Energy. Within these sectors, major sources of emissions include combustion of fossil fuels and the consumption of electricity.
Hoboken's carbon footprint is approximately 8.08 tCO2e per capita, which is higher than New York City, but lower than other cities in New Jersey and comparable cities in the northeast.
Community Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory Report
The total GHG emissions from municipal operations for calendar year 2017 amounted to 4,280 tCO2e. For Hoboken’s local government, its facilities, lighting (street lights and traffic lights), and vehicle fleet are the three largest sectors of GHG emissions. Within these sectors, major sources of emissions include combustion of fossil fuels and the consumption of electricity.
For more information about the City of Hoboken’s Sustainability and Resiliency Efforts, click here.
