SECTION 1.
The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:(a) California is an international climate change leader, and has established a wide array of programs that serve as models for other jurisdictions and has created new, successful markets for a wide array of clean technologies, including renewable energy, zero-emission vehicles, and low-carbon and renewable fuels.
(b) California can, and should, display similar leadership to decarbonize other hard-to-abate sectors, including cement and concrete.
(c) Public agencies
are the largest purchasers and users of cement and concrete in California. About 40 percent of all cement and concrete in California goes into roads and sidewalks, alone.
(d) To achieve deep greenhouse gas emissions reductions in cement and concrete, new advanced technologies are needed. Advance procurement agreements that seek to accelerate the development and deployment of low-carbon materials by demonstrating market demand well in advance are an important tool for scaling the production and use of next-generation, low-carbon cement and concrete.
(e) Pursuant to Section 38561.2 of the Health and Safety Code, the state board will develop a comprehensive strategy for the state’s cement sector to achieve 40 percent reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases below a 2019 baseline
by 2035 and net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases as soon as possible, but no later than 2045. Among other items, the strategy will include an evaluation of measures to support market demand and financial incentives to encourage the production and use of cement with low greenhouse gas intensity, including measures taken by the Department of Transportation and other state agencies.
(f) Executive Order No. N-19-19 does both of the following:
(1) Directs the Transportation Agency to leverage more than five billion dollars ($5,000,000,000) in annual state transportation spending for construction, operations, and maintenance to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
(2) Directs the Department of General Services to manage ownership
and operation of state buildings to minimize state government’s carbon footprint and to develop and implement sustainable purchasing policies across state agencies that prioritize the purchase of environmentally preferable goods and materials, consistent with state climate policies.
(g) At the 26th Conference of Parties United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties in Glasgow, Scotland, California announced an initiative with the Pacific Coast Collaborative regarding low-carbon construction, with the goals of accelerating innovation, investment, and market development for
low-carbon materials.
(h) At the same conference, the United States Department of State, in conjunction with dozens of leading companies, launched the First Movers Coalition, through which member companies committed to use their purchasing power to create early markets for innovative clean technologies across hard to abate hard-to-abate sectors, including via advance market commitments.
(i) At the 27th Conference of Parties United Nations Climate Change Conference
of the Parties in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, coalition members committed to purchase or specify at least 10 percent by volume of cement and concrete per year that meets specific low-carbon benchmarks, inclusive of any supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) by 2030 and excluding fossil-based SCMs by 2035.