71442.
The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:(a) The COVID-19 pandemic is one of the worst health and economic crises in the history of California and the United States. By the end of April 2020, the nation’s COVID-19 cases reached one million with over 63,000 deaths – more than the total number lost during the Vietnam war. Because of institutional racism and massive social inequalities, such as disparities in income and access to quality healthcare and an overrepresentation in essential sectors, the nation’s COVID-19 deaths have been higher in Black and Latino communities. Similarly, the United States economy has also felt the crushing blow of COVID-19 with over 30 million unemployment claims filed. The United States gross domestic product dropped in the first quarter of 2020 and could go down as much as 45 percent, according to economic forecasts. United States farmers have been forced to make the difficult decision of destroying their products due to a lack of customers.
(b) California, the world’s fifth largest economy, has experienced the same problems seen worldwide with massive unemployment, thousands of COVID-19 cases, and a sharp decline in economic productivity. Before the COVID-19 outbreak, California faced serious structural challenges that the pandemic has now exacerbated, including a significant housing shortage with an exploding homeless population and high levels of poverty. California needs a recovery policy that can address many of these needs in addition to the new problems brought on by COVID-19.
(c) The COVID-19 public health crisis has highlighted and exacerbated the problems faced by workers and working families in California. For far too long workers have been undervalued, underpaid, and unprotected on the job. Many hourly wage earners working in various parts of the service economy provide critical support for our economy, but they cannot afford the necessities to support their families. Household costs such as medical coverage and childcare are not provided by many employers, which leaves many families exposed when a disaster strikes. COVID-19 has forced many workers into precarious circumstances where they are risking their lives to provide for their families. Moreover, with the closure of schools, some workers are having to put their livelihoods in jeopardy to care for their children. This will drive many working families that are already living paycheck-to-paycheck closer to poverty. During the COVID-19 pandemic we have labeled these workers as “essential” and now we have to make sure that their wages, benefits, and protections reflect the importance of the work they do.
(d) The state will continue to experience significant climate change impacts by 2050 that include human illness, injuries, and mortality, coastal degradation, extreme droughts, wildfires, flooding, and increased air pollution. By 2100, if emissions of greenhouse gases continue to rise at current rates through 2030, the increasing frequency of extreme weather will have dramatic impacts on all facets of living in the state. The impacts from wildfires will increase significantly by the end of the century, based on recent moderate estimates. Sea level rise will destroy coastlines and beaches, degrade groundwater resources, and damage public and private property, including airports and freeways. Droughts will be longer and more frequent than previously experienced, which will reduce the amount of water available for residential, industrial, and agricultural needs. Climate-related health risks will lead to increases in adverse reproductive outcomes, respiratory and cardiovascular disease, vector borne and infectious diseases, mental health impacts, and premature mortality, particularly for the most vulnerable populations in the state.
(e) The state has committed to reducing emissions of greenhouse gases to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030 (Chapter 249 of the Statutes of 2016 (Senate Bill 32)). Furthermore, a majority of Californians have said it is important for the state to be a leader on climate change. The international body of scientists tracking climate change has determined that temperatures are rising faster than anticipated and climate impacts are accelerating sooner than expected. The international community, including California, must reduce emissions of greenhouse gases faster and more dramatically than previously believed to avoid a climate catastrophe.
(f) Over the past decade and especially recently, organized labor has been the target of numerous campaigns designed to weaken worker protections. California is home to approximately 2,500,000 union members, and a significant portion will need to transition into a new, green economy where few guarantees exist for livable wages, pensions for those aging workers, and retirement assurances that ensure the dignity and respect for all in the state.
(g) The anticipated costs in the state from the impacts of climate change by 2050, from human health impacts to infrastructure damage, are on the order of hundreds of billions of dollars. Efforts and resources to prepare and adapt communities to minimize climate change impacts, particularly disadvantaged communities, need to be prioritized to ensure the resiliency of vulnerable populations in the state.
(h) California was one of the first states in the nation to enact environmental justice reforms. Environmental justice is the fair treatment of people of all races, cultures, and incomes with respect to the development, adoption, implementation, and enforcement of environmental and land use laws, regulations, and policies.
(i) The state has among the highest costs of living, rates of homelessness, and levels of childhood poverty of any state in the nation. Income inequality is widening throughout the state. Wage stagnation persists for many workers. Low-income populations are the most likely to suffer from extreme weather, fires, and other impacts of climate change.
(j) The state’s social compact of the 1950s and 1960s promised that every child who studied hard would have access to an affordable college education. It promised that no state resident would be without shelter. It promised that all state residents would share in bearing the costs of this compact in an equitable way because all state residents and state business enterprises would benefit. That compact was weakened in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Beginning in the 2000s, the Legislature slowly began to restore the compact. Those efforts must accelerate to reduce the state’s poverty rate, increase equity, restore educational and job opportunities, and protect public health and the environment.
(k) American cities are among the epicenters of climate pollution, suffer the consequences of associated air pollutants, and are some of the largest pollution sources in the world, making them well suited both to implement, and to benefit from, decarbonization. While California has made progress on numerous environmental goals, this part would provide a blueprint for a just transition that would guarantee equal jobs and benefits for workers in a new green economy.