The city of Sacramento is starting work on a climate change program that will aim to lower its greenhouse gas emissions.

If the climate program receives adequate funding, it will be launched in July and created over a two-year span, said Tom Pace, long-range planning manager for the city. The program will be known as the city’s climate action plan.

“There might be new policies that come out of this work that we’re doing” for the climate action plan, Pace said.

He noted that new climate change policies may need to be incorporated into Sacramento’s 2030 general plan, which is a long-term road map for city planning.

Pace explained that the climate program is being created as a follow-up action to the City Council’s March approval of the 2030 general plan.

The city hopes to use federal stimulus funds to pay for the development of the program, he said. The city is eyeing federal stimulus dollars that are pegged for energy efficiency programs.

The cost estimate for the program is still being developed, Pace said. However, he pointed out that other cities have spent $150,000-$300,000 to pay for their climate change programs.

Residents can help create the climate action plan, which is scheduled for completion in summer 2011. The city will be working with a stakeholder group, and the plan will be discussed at public meetings of the Sacramento Planning Commission, City Council, and other boards and commissions, Pace said.

Information about the process will be posted online, he said.

The city’s burgeoning climate action plan is prompted in part by California Attorney General Jerry Brown’s direction to local governments in 2007 that their plans must account for climate change.

Sacramento also has a sustainability plan, which calls for the city to develop a climate action plan, Pace said.