SECTION 1.
(a) The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:(1) Climate change is causing historic droughts, devastating wildfires, torrential storms, extreme heat, the death of millions of trees, billions of dollars in property damage, and threats to human health and food supplies.
(2) The state’s forests, agricultural lands, rangelands, wetlands, oceans, and other natural and working landscapes define the beauty and well-being of our state, but tragically are suffering increasing degradation caused by a changing climate.
(3) While the state’s natural and working landscapes confront impacts from climate change, they continue to provide a valuable carbon sequestration service that can help the state meet its long-term climate, public health, environmental, and economic goals.
(4) Nations came together to adopt the Paris Agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which calls for preventing average global temperatures from rising more than 2°C (3.6°F) above preindustrial levels and pursuing efforts to keep warming below 1.5°C (2.7°F) above preindustrial levels.
(5) The state has strong partnerships through the Under2Coalition, with more than 200 jurisdictions around the world, representing 1.3 billion people, committing themselves to meeting the Paris Agreement goals and going beyond them wherever possible.
(6) Scientists agree that worldwide carbon pollution must start trending downward immediately, and carbon neutrality, which is the point at which the removal of carbon pollution from the atmosphere meets or exceeds emissions, must be achieved by midcentury.
(7) The achievement of carbon neutrality will require both significant reductions in carbon pollution and the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, including sequestration in forests, soils, and other natural landscapes.
(8) California, through two executive orders, Executive Order No. N-82-20 and Executive Order No. B-55-18, has acknowledged that the state’s natural and working lands have a critical role to play in the state’s climate strategy and ability to achieve carbon neutrality.
(9) Strategies that include the state’s natural and working lands to address climate change should also support associated values and benefits, such as food and job security, biodiversity, wildlife habitat, and water and air quality protection.
(10) The State Air Resources Board’s 2017 Climate Change Scoping Plan, prepared pursuant to Section 38561 of the Health and Safety Code, charts the steps to achieve the state’s greenhouse gas emissions goals, presenting a balanced set of economically viable and technologically feasible actions for carbon reduction.
(11) The state has taken the following specific steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions:
(A) Requiring significant reductions of destructive super pollutants, including black carbon and methane.
(B) Supporting clean transportation to reduce petroleum use by 45 percent by 2030, as outlined in the State Air Resources Board’s 2017 Climate Change Scoping Plan prepared pursuant to Section 38561 of the Health and Safety Code.
(C) Setting a goal of 5 million zero-emission vehicles by 2030 in Executive Order No. B-48-18.
(D) Proposing to double the reduction in the carbon intensity of fuels through the Low Carbon Fuel Standard regulations (Subarticle 7 (commencing with Section 95480) of Title 17 of the California Code of Regulations) by 2030.
(E) Moving the state to 100 percent clean energy by 2045 pursuant to Section 454.53 of the Public Utilities Code.
(F) Requiring the state to double the rate of energy efficiency savings in buildings.
(G) Extending and improving the state’s market-based compliance mechanism, commonly known as cap and trade.
(H) Directing the cap-and-trade moneys to greenhouse gas emissions-reducing programs that benefit disadvantaged communities.
(I) Developing a Forest Carbon Plan to better manage the state’s forest land.
(J) Establishing a goal of reducing at least five million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year through the development and application of compost on working lands in Section 42649.87 of the Public Resources Code.
(b) It is the intent of the Legislature that the state accomplish all of the following:
(1) All policies and programs undertaken to achieve carbon neutrality seek to improve air quality and support the health and economic resiliency of urban and rural communities, particularly low-income and disadvantaged communities.
(2) All policies and programs undertaken to achieve carbon neutrality be implemented in a manner that maximizes ecological health and biodiversity and supports climate adaptation, including the protection of the state’s water supply, water quality, and native plants and animals.
(3) State agencies engage the support, participation, and partnership of universities, businesses, investors, and communities, as appropriate, to achieve greenhouse gas emissions reductions goals.