On April 22, 2025, The Climate Center convened 400 climate activists, environmental justice advocates, state decision-makers, elected officials, business leaders, scientists, and policy experts for the fourth annual California Climate Policy Summit. Thank you to everyone who joined us! Together, we’ll continue building support for accelerated, equitable climate policy.
Read here the opening remarks from The Climate Center CEO Ellie Cohen:
Welcome and thank you for being here today to build power across our organizations to achieve our urgent goal of accelerated, equitable climate action here in California. We need to demonstrate to state leaders, the rest of the country, and the world that equitably addressing climate change is how we build sustainable, vibrant, and healthy communities.
The clean energy revolution, paired with regenerative agriculture and other natural climate solutions, is the way to ease the burden on working families and make our electricity more affordable, cleaner, more reliable, and more resilient, while also ensuring water and food security and a healthy future.
But with the federal administration’s anti-democratic, anti-science, and pro-profit tsunami of immoral and often illegal activities, some of our state policymakers and elected officials are actually leaning more conservatively and becoming more cautious about climate action.
The climate crisis is rapidly worsening and rapidly accelerating toward us, yet some of our leaders seem to be stunned into inaction at just the moment we need them to be more ambitious than ever. These tough times require not backtracking on our commitment to science and justice, not kowtowing to intimidation and threats, but innovating and acting more boldly than ever, commensurate with the science and climate reality.
As many of you know, the Trump administration is expected to release an executive order soon instructing the Internal Revenue Service to strip climate and environmental justice organizations of our federal tax-exempt 501(c)(3) status, alleging that efforts to address climate change are not a charitable purpose.
This executive order is likely illegal and will surely be challenged in court. We at The Climate Center and across our movement will not back down. Let’s call it out for what it really is: an intimidation tactic. It’s a political attack designed to distract, intimidate, divide, and silence those of us who care about the health of our planet and its people. They will not succeed.
It is an unprecedented abuse of executive power, ultimately about furthering their obscene profits and undermining any opposition. No government — Democratic or Republican — should use its power unlawfully to threaten and impede organizations working lawfully and in good faith for the public good.
Consequently, our movement must become even louder, we must unite in even greater solidarity, and our work to make life-saving climate solutions a reality today must continue and grow. Nothing this administration does will shake our commitment to science-based, accelerated, and equitable climate and justice policy.
We will win, not because we have more money, but because we have science, justice, and all of you on our side. We are here today to discuss the critical policies that will help California significantly and equitably cut its climate pollution and be a model for the rest of the country and the world. While the current administration in Washington clearly disagrees, everyone has the right to clean air, clean water, nourishing food, and safe, affordable clean energy.
Today at the fourth annual California Climate Policy Summit, you will learn about — and many of you will be teaching us about — a range of solutions from virtual power plants to utility reform that will make electricity cheaper for California families. And about regenerative agriculture and natural climate solutions that will make our lives healthier and safer.
We will learn more about policy solutions that increase affordability through the transition to a clean energy future — a major issue that is impacting us all, as the price of carbon must increase to reduce pollution, and as corporate utilities rake in profits. All of us are feeling the pain on our utility bills, and that must be addressed as we electrify everything.
And we will learn about policies to fund this transition, first and foremost by Making Polluters Pay for the damages they have inflicted on our climate, our communities, and our ecosystems. This will raise billions of dollars in revenue to help pay for climate calamities, climate mitigation and adaptation, and increased affordability.
We had some great news yesterday: the Make Polluters Pay Climate Superfund bill, AB 1243 (Addis) passed in the Assembly Natural Resources Committee 9-4! Congratulations to everyone who has been working so hard on this, and special thanks to Senator Menjivar and Assemblymember Addis for leading on this. It is time to ensure that Big Oil, which made billions in record profits in recent years, pays its fair share. And it is long past time to end other state tax breaks and subsidies for oil and gas companies.
We have another huge opportunity to address affordability through the upcoming Cap and Trade Program reauthorization, but only if we reform the program. Simply reauthorizing the program as is means leaving literally billions of dollars on the table, continuing deadly pollution in frontline communities, and undermining the state’s ability to meet its climate goals.
Last year, the state Cap and Trade Program actually gave fossil fuel companies almost $890 million in free allowances at a time when the state was cutting climate programs and Big Oil’s profits were soaring. These funds should be repurposed to provide direct rebates to working-class, low- and middle-income Californians to help them with rising energy costs.
Today, we will also learn about efforts to ensure larger dedicated percentages of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund are invested in increasing resilience to growing climate impacts for our communities and on natural lands, as well as in agricultural and urban areas. These investments are key to addressing the deadly impacts of worsening heat extremes, increasing climate-friendly management of our forests and wetlands, increasing beneficial wildfire management, and managing nature to be more resilient.
And because the science is clear — we cannot draw down enough past climate pollution from the atmosphere by nature-based solutions alone to secure a stable climate — we’ll also learn about approaches to responsible technological carbon removal from the atmosphere. How do we do this with the engagement of and minimal impact to communities and the environment?
Speaking of our communities and impact, you may have heard the recent announcement that the Valero Refinery in Benicia in the Bay Area is planning to close next April. While many of us here are working for a managed planned transition, it is now incumbent upon us to support the 400 workers, their families, and their community through this difficult transition. This is not how we hoped this to happen. We want a managed transition where the state, businesses, labor, and local communities plan together, ensuring workers and their families are taken care of. We can do better!
You’ll learn more about this today in a session focused on the Philips 66 refinery closure with fenceline community residents, labor leaders, state representatives, and refinery experts about how to safely and equitably wind down refinery operations.
In the face of the worst political upheaval in the United States since the Civil War — at the same time as we face a disregard for the rule of law, a relentless pursuit of profit at any cost, and the existential threat of climate collapse — let’s remember to hold on to our humanity, and every day amplify our respect and love for one another, for nature, for community, and for all life.
Working together, we will secure a vibrant, healthy future. Even in the toughest of times, joining together, we will find renewed strength to do the hard work needed every day while also celebrating the joy of life and community. Thank you!
