SECTION 1.
The Legislature finds and declares all the following:(a) Climate change will have devastating global impacts.
(b) All scientific evidence points to the need for California and the world to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to avert the worst effects of climate change. Climate change impacts are already apparent in California, where scientists have determined that annual temperature increases and a long-term drought are consequences of human-induced climate change.
(c) The Legislature has committed to reduce greenhouse gases, through numerous statutes requiring regulatory and other action by public agencies. Those regulations and actions do not currently encourage public dollars for infrastructure projects to be spent in a way that is consistent with the state’s goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
(d) Executive Order B-30-15 issued by Governor Edmund G. Brown, Jr. stipulates that “State agencies shall take climate change into account in their planning and investment decisions and employ full life-cycle cost accounting to evaluate and compare infrastructure investments and alternatives.” Full life cycle cost accounting in this instance also refers to accounting for the impacts across the life cycle of a product, or life cycle assessment.
(e) Great quantities of emissions are released during the manufacture and transport of products used in public infrastructure projects.
(f) California, through its extensive purchasing power, can improve environmental outcomes and accelerate necessary greenhouse gas reductions to protect public health, the environment, and conserve a livable climate by incorporating emissions information from throughout the supply chain and product life cycle into procurement decisions, and using that information to help direct expenditure.
(g) Incorporating emissions information will acknowledge those companies that have invested in emissions reduction technologies and practices. It will encourage other companies to take action to reduce emissions to become more competitive in the California bidding process.