PACIFIC GAS & ELECTRIC Co

The impacts of climate change on the Utility’s infrastructure are already a reality. Record-breaking extreme heat and heat waves are increasingly a regular occurrence throughout California. In the past few years, the Utility’s electric distribution system has experienced multiple major outage-causing events associated with extreme heat events and peak loads. Peak loads are expected to increase with increasing temperatures due to direct impacts of ambient temperatures on equipment, increased electricity demand driven by rising air conditioning installation and usage, and continued electrification of transportation and buildings. Higher temperatures may also impact the condition and performance of electric assets, potentially causing deterioration of assets and operational constraints.

The Utility’s assets on the coast and in or near watersheds face potential increased exposures to coastal, riverine, and precipitation-related flooding because of climate‑driven changes in precipitation and sea level rise. The risk of damage to or interruptions of operations at facilities such as substations is predicted to increase over time due to sea level rise. Electric and gas equipment and safe access for operations must be prepared for these changing conditions.

Changing precipitation dynamics may impact the Utility’s hydroelectric generation. Diminishing future water availability and altered runoff timing during extreme drought poses risks to hydropower generation, operations, and revenue. Also, extreme rain events suggest enhanced risk of hydropower asset damage or failure associated with flooding, which in the worst cases (e.g., uncontrolled water release) may have catastrophic impacts.

Climate change will also continue to intensify the potential for wildfires throughout California. Models incorporating future temperature and precipitation projections suggest that landscape susceptibility to wildfire within the Utility’s service area will continue to increase over time, with an expansion of areas that may become HFTD and an intensification of risk within HFTDs. Climate change may also result in increased potential of equipment to cause ignitions or to require PSPS events, as well as the potential for the Utility’s equipment to sustain damage from wildfires of any origin.

The worsening conditions across California increase the likelihood and severity of wildfires, including those in which the Utility’s equipment may be alleged to be associated with the fire’s ignition. Reducing risk will be even more important as climate change continues to exacerbate the risks facing the Utility.

Greenhouse Gas Emissions Regulation

California laws and regulations have established the following targets:

•A 40% reduction in GHGs by 2030 compared to 1990 levels.

•60% of retail electricity sales to customers from renewable energy sources by 2030.

•Economy-wide State carbon neutrality by 2045, with net negative emissions thereafter.

•Renewable and zero-carbon resources supplying 90% of utilities’ retail electricity sales to customers by 2035, 95% by 2040, and 100% by 2045.

The CARB has also approved GHG emissions reporting and a state-wide, comprehensive program that sets gradually declining limits (or “caps”) on the amount of GHGs that may be emitted by major GHG emission sources within different sectors of the economy under a program known as the cap-and-trade program. In 2025, the changes to state law authorized the program through 2045. Entities with a compliance obligation, including entities that supply electricity and natural gas to California consumers, can obtain allowances from the CARB at quarterly auctions or from third parties or exchanges. Complying entities may also satisfy a portion of their compliance obligation through the purchase of offset credits.

The Utility expects all costs and revenues associated with the GHG cap and trade program to be passed through to customers.

The current federal administration has led to uncertainty with regard to what further actions may occur regarding climate change at the federal level.

Mitigating Greenhouse Gas Emissions

The Utility works to mitigate the impact of its operations (including customer energy usage) on the environment, consistent with its commitment to clean and resilient energy for all. See “Emissions Data” below.

PG&E Corporation’s and the Utility’s 2022 Climate Strategy Report, which is available to the public, describes the companies’ climate goals and plans to meet those goals. California laws and regulations have also established targets for GHG emissions. See “Greenhouse Gas Emissions Regulation” above.

The core elements of the Utility’s plan to achieve these goals are to:

•reduce its operational emissions;

•maximize electrification where feasible;

•integrate clean electricity supply and load management solutions;

•modernize the gas system into an essential low-carbon resource; and

•offset remaining emissions through high-quality carbon removal solutions.

To reduce operational emissions, the Utility plans to take steps such as reducing methane leaks from its natural gas system, reducing sulfur hexafluoride emissions from the electric system, and electrifying its vehicles, buildings, and facilities.

To maximize electrification, the Utility plans to enable and scale building electrification, supported by building codes and appliance standards that give preference to electric technologies, as well as customers choosing to adopt electric appliances. The Utility can accelerate customer adoption of electric vehicles by offering customer programs, preparing the grid to accommodate new electric vehicle demand, and partnering with innovators on strategies that reduce the cost of owning an electric vehicle.

Load management solutions can increase utilization of the electric infrastructure system, such as by using distributed energy resources more strategically and enabling technologies for customers like bidirectional charging.

To integrate clean electricity supply, the Utility plans to continue to expand GHG-free energy resources and storage capacity over the long-term to meet California’s Integrated Resource Planning (“IRP”) GHG emissions reduction targets and California’s clean energy goals. The Utility expects its GHG-free energy supply to decrease in the near future because, during DCPP’s extended operations, the Utility is required to allocate its GHG-free attributes to certain non-Utility providers. The Utility also allocates or sells certain GHG-free energy supply to eligible non-Utility providers in its service territory pursuant to CPUC directives.

Modernizing the gas system involves reducing natural gas carbon intensity through clean fuels and decarbonizing hard-to-electrify customers. Clean renewable fuels such as renewable natural gas, which is derived from organic waste, offers a sustainable alternative to fossil fuel-based gas. While still early in assessing its potential, the Utility may also blend a safe amount of hydrogen for customers in the future, if authorized.

The Utility’s ability to implement this plan depends on many factors, such as customers adopting technologies and behaviors that reduce GHG emissions and supportive federal, state, and local climate policies and programs, including regulatory innovations needed to reduce unnecessary new costs for the energy system. New and maturing technologies will need to become effective and efficient. Additionally, the Utility will need to construct infrastructure to serve customer demand and implement load management solutions in a way that is affordable for customers. This affordable construction depends on PG&E Corporation’s and the Utility’s receiving sufficient funding through their ratemaking applications, dedicating adequate resources, efficiently financing operations, achieving operational cost savings, and benefiting from load growth.

Adapting to the Physical Impacts of Climate Change

Effectively managing physical climate risk will become increasingly critical as the physical impacts of climate change become increasingly frequent and severe over the coming years in California. The Utility’s climate resilience efforts continue to focus on characterizing and mitigating the physical impacts of climate change to the Utility’s infrastructure, assets, and operations. The Utility is making substantial investments to build a more resilient system that can better withstand extreme weather and related emergencies. For more information on such investments, see “Performance: Underpinning the Triple Bottom Line” above.

A key element of preparing the Utility for the physical risks of climate change is a system-wide CAVA of the Utility’s assets, operations, and services, filed with the CPUC in 2024. The CAVA improves the Utility’s understanding of its exposure to climate hazards and the sensitivity of assets and operations to these hazards, and provides the basis for necessary climate resilience investments. The Utility is currently developing the next CAVA, which is expected to be more granular than the previous climate vulnerability assessment and will be submitted to the CPUC in 2027.

The Utility is using the CAVA to inform changes to design and construction standards for equipment and facilities in order to increase infrastructure resilience. The Utility plans to continue identifying priority adaptive actions by incorporating results from the CAVA into its risk management, planning, and asset management functions. The Utility works to incorporate scientific information into its operations by reviewing relevant scientific literature. The Utility also works to incorporate customer and community perspectives in the CAVA process based on its engagement with CPUC-designated disadvantaged and vulnerable communities.

The Utility’s commitment to increasing resilience to climate change includes aligning its resources and business strategy with California’s clean energy goals and advocating for policies and programs that enable safe and reliable energy for the Utility’s customers in light of climate change. For example, the Utility believes its strategies to reduce GHG emissions through a portfolio of customer programs, infrastructure improvements, and the use of renewable energy and energy storage will help it adapt to the expected increases in demand for electricity.

PG&E Corporation and the Utility are also making progress on transitioning the gas system to cleaner fuels and supporting efforts to accelerate building electrification. Their objective is to do so in an orderly manner to achieve a positive customer and community experience, while reducing natural gas system investments in targeted electrified communities.

Emissions Data

PG&E Corporation and the Utility track and report their annual environmental performance results across a broad spectrum of areas.

The following table shows the Utility’s third-party verified voluntary GHG inventory for 2024, which is the most recent data available. Measuring emissions data involves complex estimates and assumptions, which may change as a result of methodology changes.

PG&E Corporation and the Utility also publish additional GHG emissions data in their annual Corporate Sustainability Report.

(1)Scope 1 emissions are direct emissions from the Utility’s operations and Scope 2 emissions are indirect emissions from facility electricity use and electric line losses.

(2)Scope 3 emissions are emissions resulting from downstream value chain activities not owned or controlled by the Utility but that which can be indirectly impacted by the Utility’s actions. The majority of these emissions came from customer natural gas use.

The Utility achieved a third-party verified CO 2 emissions rate of 16 pounds of CO 2 per MWh for electricity delivered to retail customers in 2024, using the CEC’s Power Source Disclosure program methodology.