Climate Targets

| Press Release

Scientists and academics respond to draft California Air Resources Board Scoping Plan

LOS ANGELES — Scientists and academics from across California today joined advocates criticizing a plan released by the California Air Resources Board for reaching carbon neutrality, saying the plan is a setback for the state and the world. The Draft Scoping Plan makes no changes to the emission reduction targets adopted in 2017, despite Governor … Read more

Categories Clean Energy Climate Targets
| Press Release

Bill to set nation’s first-ever targets for naturally removing past climate pollution passes out of California Assembly Natural Resources Committee

SACRAMENTO, April 26, 2022 — By a 7-3 vote, the Natural Carbon Sequestration and Resilience Act (AB 2649) advanced out of the California Assembly Natural Resources Committee on Monday evening. AB 2649 aims to set California’s first-ever statutory targets for naturally removing past climate pollution from the atmosphere through soil and vegetation on natural, urban, … Read more

Categories Carbon Sequestration Climate Targets
| Press Release

The Natural Carbon Sequestration and Resilience Act of 2022: New bill introduced by The Climate Center and Assemblymember Cristina Garcia

healthy soils

SACRAMENTO, March 22, 2022 — Today, The Climate Center and Assemblymember Cristina Garcia (D-Bell Gardens) introduced the Natural Carbon Sequestration and Resilience Act of 2022 (AB 2649). The bill aims to set California’s first-ever statutory targets for naturally removing past climate pollution from the atmosphere through soil and vegetation on natural, urban, and working lands.  … Read more

Categories Carbon Sequestration Climate Targets
| Press Release

ADVISORY: Media briefing on natural carbon removal solutions and California policy

Sheep grazing agriculture working lands sequestration

March 4, 2022 — Every scenario in which we limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, as outlined in the Paris agreement, involves dramatically cutting emissions and removing existing carbon pollution from the atmosphere. In order to achieve the latter, California policymakers are considering a wide variety of potential solutions, ranging from natural carbon removal … Read more

Categories Carbon Sequestration Climate Targets
| Press Release

New analysis: California’s working lands could absorb up from atmosphere equivalent of one-quarter of the state’s annual carbon emissions

Cattle Grazing Pasture

Santa Rosa, California, January 25, 2022 — A new report from California-based policy nonprofit The Climate Center finds that California’s working lands can sequester up to 100 million metric tons (MMT) of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) per year. That’s far more than previously estimated and enough to absorb almost one-quarter of the state’s annual greenhouse … Read more

Categories Carbon Sequestration Climate Targets
| Report

Setting an Ambitious Sequestration Goal for California’s Working Lands

Analysis and Recommendations for Net-Negative Emissions by 2030

Sheep grazing agriculture working lands sequestration

Every scenario in which we limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, as outlined in the Paris agreement, involves dramatically cutting emissions and removing carbon from the atmosphere. Rather than rely on unproven technologies like carbon capture and storage (CCS) that prolong fossil fuel reliance and pollution, California can look to its millions of acres of cropland, … Read more

Categories Carbon Sequestration Climate Targets Public Health
| Press Release

New analysis: Bay Area’s greenhouse gas emissions not shrinking fast enough

San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge

SANTA ROSA, California, November 8, 2021 — As world leaders gather in Glasgow for COP26, a new report by The Climate Center finds that the Bay Area’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are not decreasing fast enough. Emissions dropped 3.6 percent between 2014 and 2019 across the Bay Area, well short of the pace Bay Area counties would … Read more

Categories Climate Targets Fossil Fuels Transportation
| Report

San Francisco Bay Area Greenhouse Gas Emission Trends for 2014 – 2019

San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge

The San Francisco Bay area is home to almost 8 million Californians. The region consists of rural, urban, industrial, and suburban areas that represent a wide cross-section of California. The Climate Center conducted a report to determine greenhouse gas trends in the region in order to help policymakers determine challenges and opportunities for reducing emissions … Read more

Categories Clean Energy Climate Targets Fossil Fuels Transportation
| Post

Our open-source Pathways Model offers climate action blueprint

The Climate Center’s Climate-Safe California (CSC) campaign advocates for a set of climate targets that, if implemented, would be the most ambitious targets set by any government in the world. At first hearing, that might sound radical. But listening to the mandates of the latest climate science is anything but radical. As we work towards … Read more

Categories Clean Energy Climate Targets