Association of California Water Agencies : California Releases Proposed Plan to Achieve 2030 Climate Goals

The California Air Resources Board on Jan. 20 released a proposed plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40% below 1990 levels by 2030. The plan builds on the state's current efforts to reduce emissions, including continuing the Cap-and-Trade Program.

The first of three public hearings on the proposed plan will be held Jan. 27. The CARB is slated to hold workshops in February and hear an update at the Feb. 16 meeting. The Final 2017 Scoping Plan Update will be released in late March and be considered for approval by the board in late April. Stakeholders and the public are encouraged to submit comments by 5:00 pm March 6.

'Climate change is impacting California now, and we need to continue to take bold and effective action to address it head on to protect and improve the quality of life in California,' CARB Chair Mary D. Nichols said in a written statement. 'The plan will help us meet both our climate and our clean air goals in the coming decades and provide billions of dollars in investments to cut greenhouse gases, smog and toxic pollution in disadvantaged communities throughout the state. It is also designed to continue to drive creative innovation, generating good new jobs in the growing clean technology sector.'

The proposed plan, which follows the release of a discussion draft in December, analyzes the potential economic impacts of different policy scenarios, including a carbon tax, and calculates the benefit to society of taking actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The plan also includes the estimated range of greenhouse gas, criteria pollutant and toxic pollutant emissions reductions of each measure.

The analysis in the plan finds that Cap-and-Trade is the lowest cost, most efficient policy approach and provides certainty that the state will meet the 2030 goals even if other measures fall short. The Cap-and-Trade Program funds the California Climate Investments program, which provides funds for community, local, regional and statewide projects aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions - with at least 35 percent of proceeds invested in disadvantaged and low-income communities. To date, a total of

$3.4 billion in cap-and-trade funds have been appropriated for the California Climate Investments program.

The full text of 'The 2017 Scoping Plan Update: The Proposed Plan for Achieving California's 2030 Greenhouse Gas Target' is available at:

http://www.arb.ca.gov/cc/scopingplan/scopingplan.htm

More information on submitting comments is at https://www.arb.ca.gov/lispub/comm/bclist.php.

According to a press release from the CARB, achieving the 2030 target under the proposed plan will continue to build on investments in clean energy and set the California economy on a trajectory to achieving an 80% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. This is consistent with the scientific consensus of the scale of emission reductions needed to stabilize atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations at 450 parts per million carbon dioxide equivalent, and reduce the likelihood of catastrophic climate change.

For the past decade, California has been reducing emissions through a series of actions that include cleaner, more fuel-efficient cars and zero emission vehicles, low-carbon fuels, renewable energy, waste diversion from landfills, water conservation, improvements to energy efficiency in homes and businesses, and a Cap-and-Trade Program.