SACRAMENTO — Moments ago, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) unanimously voted to adopt the final Scoping Plan, the state’s five-year roadmap for meeting its climate targets. While feedback from scientists and advocates has improved the plan significantly since the beginning of the year, gaps in CARB’s modeling and flaws in its approach to carbon removal remain.
In response, The Climate Center Natural Sequestration Initiative Manager Baani Behniwal said:
“This Scoping Plan raises huge question marks. California cannot gamble its climate future on direct air capture, which CARB has irresponsibly projected the state will scale to 2.6 billion times its current worldwide capacity by 2035. Instead, we urge CARB to prioritize proven, natural sequestration strategies like climate-smart agriculture and reforestation. These approaches not only remove carbon from the atmosphere, but also increase water efficiency, biodiversity, food security, and more.
“We look forward to working with the agency on the AB 1757 process to ensure the state’s climate goals center equity and science while building resilience on our natural and working lands.”
The Climate Center and partners have engaged with CARB staff and board members throughout the Scoping Plan process. Analysis and recommendations sent to CARB are available here. CARB’s detailed modeling is available here.
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Contact: Ryan Schleeter, Communications Director, The Climate Center: ryan@theclimatecenter.org, (415) 342-2386
About The Climate Center:
The Climate Center is a climate and energy policy nonprofit working to rapidly reduce climate pollution at scale, starting in California. We are a think-tank, do-tank working to turn bold ideas into action for a climate-safe future. Our flagship Climate-Safe California campaign is a unique and comprehensive effort to make California the first state in the nation to reach carbon negative. www.theclimatecenter.org
