Fort Collins is not on track to meet the three major climate goals it established for 2030, according to materials prepared for the City Council work session Tuesday night.
Under the Our Climate Future plan adopted in 2021, the city committed to reducing community greenhouse gas emissions 80% below 2005 levels, providing 100% renewable electricity and diverting all community waste from landfills by 2030.
The city now projects that community emissions will be approximately 49% below the 2005 baseline in 2030, leaving a 31-percentage-point gap between the forecast and the adopted goal. Platte River Power Authority expects to provide more than 80% non-carbon electricity by that year, rather than the city’s goal of 100% renewable electricity. Fort Collins’ current waste-diversion rate is 56%.
Emissions reduction moved backward in 2025
Fort Collins’ preliminary greenhouse gas inventory estimates that the community produced approximately 1.9 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2025. That was 20% below the 2005 baseline, compared with a 29% reduction reported for 2024.
The increase amounted to approximately 200,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent. City staff said that is comparable to the annual electricity use of about 40,000 average single-family homes, using the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s equivalency calculator.
City documents attribute most of the change to Platte River’s sale of renewable energy credits, commonly called RECs. Selling the credits does not change how much renewable power Platte River generates, but it changes whether Fort Collins may count that generation as renewable in its emissions inventory and climate metrics.
Without the REC sales, staff estimate that community emissions would have been 29% below the 2005 baseline in 2025, matching the reduction reported for 2024. The city said the preliminary figures could change, but it expects any revision to the percentage reduction to be minimal.
The sales were intended to reduce upward pressure on electric rates while Platte River and its member communities navigate the cost of the energy transition. The city’s projection of a 49% emissions reduction by 2030 assumes the REC sales end in 2029.
Buildings are expected to remain the community’s largest emissions source, followed by transportation. The city’s planned responses include incentives for building efficiency, active-transportation infrastructure, programs encouraging residents to drive less, expanded organics diversion, additional local renewable generation and transportation electrification.
Municipal operations are performing better than the community. The city organization produced approximately 30,029 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2025, a 52% reduction from 2005. The previous municipal inventory, completed in 2022, found a 48% reduction. Municipal emissions represent about 1.5% of community-wide emissions.
Fleet emissions fell by more than 60% from the 2022 inventory. Staff estimate that municipal emissions would have been approximately 60% below the baseline if the renewable energy credits had not been sold.
Renewable share fell to 34%
Renewable resources accounted for approximately 34% of Fort Collins’ electricity consumption in 2025, down from 48% in 2024. City staff estimate the share would have been approximately 50% without the REC sales.
Platte River is forecasting that more than 80% of its electricity will come from non-carbon sources by 2030. The utility has invested more than $1.5 billion in wind and solar resources and is planning another large wind project for delivery in 2028 or 2029, according to the council materials.
Non-carbon and renewable electricity are not necessarily interchangeable terms. Non-carbon generation can include resources that do not qualify as renewable. The council presentation describes Fort Collins’ adopted goal as 100% renewable electricity but describes Platte River’s forecast as greater than 80% non-carbon electricity.
Platte River’s next Integrated Resource Plan, expected to be completed in 2028, will help determine how the utility approaches the remaining gap beyond 2030. Locally, Fort Collins plans to continue residential and commercial solar and battery incentives, along with demand-response and grid-flexibility programs.
Fort Collins diverted 56% of waste
Fort Collins generated approximately 334,000 tons of material categorized as waste in 2025. Of that total, 47% was recycled, 9% was composted and 44% was sent to a landfill, resulting in a 56% diversion rate.
That leaves a 44-percentage-point gap between current performance and the city’s goal of 100% landfill diversion by 2030.
The city reported positive movement in yard-waste diversion associated with the yard-waste option offered through the city’s contracted residential trash-hauling system. Planned work includes a waste-composition study, further examination of waste infrastructure and regional partnerships, and efforts to reduce waste within municipal operations.
The proposed 2027 and 2028 investments include $50,000 in 2027 and $512,500 in 2028 for planning and potential design of community-scale composting infrastructure. That work would prepare for a future $7 million capital-tax investment approved by voters in 2025 to expand community composting efforts and infrastructure.
City staff estimate that an operational community-scale composting system could avoid approximately 122,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions through 2050. The city cautions that this figure represents the total potential of a future operating facility, not the direct effect of the proposed 2027 and 2028 planning money.
More than $11 million proposed over two years
The city’s Strategic Funding Plan appendix recommends approximately $5.26 million in climate-tax investments for 2027 and $5.84 million for 2028, totaling about $11.1 million. The requests cover building efficiency, composting, transportation, housing, urban forestry, air quality and administration of Our Climate Future programs.
City staff estimate that the projects with quantifiable effects could avoid a cumulative 253,220 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions through 2050. The estimates are intended to show the approximate scale of potential reductions rather than provide a precise forecast, and several staffing or foundational requests were not assigned emissions estimates.
The largest proposed emissions effects include:
- Community-scale composting: Potentially 122,000 metric tons avoided through 2050, although the estimate reflects a future operational system and would require substantially more funding than the planning request.
- Commercial building-efficiency incentives: Approximately 56,400 metric tons avoided through 2050, supported by proposed investments of $1.1 million in 2027 and $1.2 million in 2028.
- Land Use Code updates: Approximately 48,000 metric tons avoided through 2050, based on an assumption of significant community adoption and investment in more compact, mixed-use development. The request includes $250,000 in 2027 for consultant support.
- Transportation improvements on Taft Hill Road: Approximately 7,500 metric tons avoided through 2050. The city is requesting $615,000 in 2028 for safety and active-transportation improvements between Mulberry Street and Clearview Avenue.
- Housing energy-efficiency grants: Two proposed funding lines totaling $805,000 over two years are each projected to avoid approximately 4,100 metric tons through 2050 while supporting rental housing, mobile homes and other affordable housing.
The city also proposes $860,000 over two years to continue support for Epic Loans, which allow qualifying utility customers, including renters, to finance efficiency, electrification, solar and battery projects through low-interest, no-money-down loans repaid on utility bills.
City developing new accountability measures
Fort Collins currently uses three top-level measures to track the plan: the annual community greenhouse gas inventory, the percentage of community electricity consumption attributed to renewable resources and the annual community waste-diversion report.
Beyond those figures, staff said the city lacks consistent indicators for determining whether individual strategies and investments are effectively moving Fort Collins toward its broader climate goals.
The city plans to develop intermediate progress indicators and funding-effectiveness metrics that incorporate emissions reduction, resilience, equity and affordability. Staff anticipate bringing that work forward in the first quarter of 2027.
Council action
City Council is not scheduled to take formal action during the Nov. 10 work session. Staff are asking council members what additional information they want, where they see gaps between council priorities and Our Climate Future, and which indicators would be most useful for evaluating progress.
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