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AB-284 California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006: climate goal: natural and working lands.(2021-2022)

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Date Published: 07/14/2021 09:00 PM
AB284:v96#DOCUMENT

Amended  IN  Senate  July 14, 2021
Amended  IN  Senate  June 29, 2021
Amended  IN  Assembly  April 14, 2021

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2021–2022 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill
No. 284

Introduced by Assembly Member Robert Rivas
(Coauthors: Assembly Members Muratsuchi and Stone)
(Coauthor: Senator Skinner)

January 21, 2021

An act to add Section 38561.5 to the Health and Safety Code, relating to greenhouse gases.


LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


AB 284, as amended, Robert Rivas. California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006: climate goal: natural and working lands.
The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 establishes the State Air Resources Board as the state agency responsible for monitoring and regulating sources emitting greenhouse gases. The act requires the state board to approve a statewide greenhouse gas emissions limit equivalent to the statewide greenhouse gas emissions level in 1990 to be achieved by 2020 and to ensure that statewide greenhouse gas emissions are reduced to at least 40 percent below the 1990 level by 2030. The act requires the state board to prepare and approve a scoping plan for achieving the maximum technologically feasible and cost-effective reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and to update the scoping plan at least once every 5 years.
This bill would require the state board board, as part of the next scoping plan update, in collaboration with the Natural Resources Agency and other relevant state agencies and departments and no later than January 1, 2023, to identify a 2045 climate goal, with interim milestones, for the state’s natural and working lands, as defined, and to integrate into the scoping plan update recommendations developed by the Natural Resources Agency and the Department of Food and Agriculture regarding practices, policy and financial incentives, market needs, and potential reductions in barriers that would help achieve the 2045 climate goal, among other recommendations. The bill would require the state board, in collaboration with the Natural Resources Agency and other relevant state agencies and departments, to include this information in each subsequent update to the scoping plan and update that information, as appropriate. The
This bill would require the state board, no later than January 1, 2024, to develop standard methods for state agencies to consistently track greenhouse gas emissions and reductions, carbon sequestration, and, where feasible, feasible and in consultation with the Natural Resources Agency and the Department of Food and Agriculture, additional benefits from natural and working lands over time. The bill would require the state board, in estimating and tracking greenhouse gas emissions and reductions and carbon sequestration from natural working lands, to take into account, where feasible, greenhouse gas emissions and reductions of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide related to natural and working lands and the potential impacts of climate change on the ability to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and sequester carbon from natural and working lands.
Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: YES   Local Program: NO  

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:


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 and ranch lands, 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 pre-industrial 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 scoping plan, 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 scoping plan 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 and biodiversity, 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.

SEC. 2.

 Section 38561.5 is added to the Health and Safety Code, to read:

38561.5.
 (a) For purposes of this section, the following definitions apply:
(1) “Natural lands” has the same meaning as set forth in paragraph (2) of subdivision (d) of Section 9001.5 of the Public Resources Code.
(2) “Vulnerable communities” has the same meaning as set forth in subdivision (d) of Section 71340 of the Public Resources Code.

(2)

(3)  “Working lands” has the same meaning as set forth in paragraph (1) of subdivision (d) of Section 9001.5 of the Public Resources Code.
(b) As part of the next update to the scoping plan prepared pursuant to Section 38561, the state board, in collaboration with the Natural Resources Agency and other relevant state agencies and departments, shall do both of the following no later than January 1, 2023:
(1) Identify a 2045 climate goal, with interim milestones, for the state’s natural and working lands to sequester carbon and reduce atmospheric greenhouse gas emissions. The climate goal shall support the state’s efforts to achieve carbon neutrality, take into account climate impacts, increase resilience to climate change impacts, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and enhance carbon sequestration in a manner that maximizes ecological health and biodiversity, and complements other climate and resources goals.
(2) Integrate into the scoping plan update recommendations developed by the Natural Resources Agency and the Department of Food and Agriculture regarding all of the following:
(A) Practices, policy and financial incentives, market needs, and potential reductions in barriers that would help achieve the climate goal established pursuant to paragraph (1).
(B) Technical assistance to landowners landowners, land managers, Native American tribes, and local governments to facilitate implementation of activities that sequester carbon, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and enable access to markets and incentives.
(C) Opportunities, to the extent feasible, to enhance cobenefits, including, but not limited to, the protection of vulnerable communities against climate impacts, the enhancement of water and air quality, climate resilience, public health, jobs, species habitat, public access to recreation, and emissions reduction in other sectors, such as transportation.
(c) No later than January 1, 2024, the state board shall develop standard methods for state agencies to consistently track greenhouse gas emissions and reductions, carbon sequestration, and, where feasible, feasible and in consultation with the Natural Resources Agency and the Department of Food and Agriculture, additional benefits from natural and working lands over time. In estimating and tracking greenhouse gas emissions and reductions and carbon sequestration from natural and working lands, the state board shall take into account, where feasible, both of the following:
(1) Greenhouse gas emissions and reductions of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide related to natural and working lands.
(2) Potential impacts of climate change, including, but not limited to, increased fire risk, warming temperatures, and decreasing precipitation, on the ability to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and sequester carbon from natural and working lands.
(d) As part of each subsequent update to the scoping plan, after the completion of the update described in subdivision (b), the state board, in collaboration with the Natural Resources Agency and other relevant state agencies and departments, shall include the information identified pursuant to subdivision (b) and update that information, as appropriate.