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Governor Newsom: Eliminate fossil fuel subsidies and prioritize climate investments

Gavin Newsom by Charlie Kaijo

Governor Newsom recently unveiled his proposed state budget for 2024-2025, which includes billions in potential cuts to climate and energy investments. If approved by the legislature, these cuts would bring California’s multi-year climate budget down to $48.3 billion from the $54 billion approved in 2022, an 11 percent reduction.  Coming off the hottest year on … Read more

| Press Release

Facing budget deficit, Governor Newsom must eliminate all fossil fuel subsidies and tax breaks

Gavin Newsom by Charlie Kaijo

SACRAMENTO — Faced with a $38 billion budget deficit, Governor Newsom today announced additional proposed cuts to California’s climate and energy investments. If approved by the legislature, these cuts would bring California’s multi-year climate budget down to $48.3 billion from the $54 billion approved in 2022, an 11 percent reduction. Some of these cuts may … Read more

What Lackluster Progress at COP28 Means for California

Zoom

The final agreement reached at COP28, the annual United Nations climate conference that concluded in December, recognized the need to transition away from fossil fuels. But it contained almost no details about how nations can wean themselves off of oil, gas, and coal. In this webinar, we heard from California legislators, The Climate Center’s own … Read more

| Blog Post

What We Learned at COP28: California Can and Must Do More on Climate

The Climate Center's Marc Victoria, Baani Behniwal, and Barry Vesser at COP28

Last November, The Climate Center’s Barry Vesser, Baani Behniwal, and Marc Victoria traveled to Dubai, United Arab Emirates for COP28 — the UN’s annual climate conference — to help coordinate the California delegation. With a record attendance of 84,000 people from 193 countries, this COP was massive. You may be wondering why The Climate Center, … Read more

California Climate Lobby Day 2024

Sacramento, CA

On March 20 2024, the day after the California Climate Policy Summit, The Climate Center and our partners led a day of advocacy at state legislative offices. This was an opportunity to meet directly with lawmakers and their staff to deliver a clear and compelling message about the bills we want to see California pass … Read more

| Press Release

COP28 fails to deliver fossil fuel phaseout plan, so California must

Baani Behniwal and Barry Vesser Dubai COP28

SAN FRANCISCO — COP28, the annual United Nations climate conference, has come to a close. While UN officials call the agreement reached the “beginning of the end” of fossil fuels, it still falls well short of what science says is necessary to limit global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius, as defined by the Paris Agreement.  In … Read more

Managing the Transition Away From Fossil Fuels. What Is Required?

The Climate Registry Pavilion, Expo City, Dubai

California and a few other climate-leading states and countries have made initial progress reducing demand for oil — for example through deploying electric vehicles — but have done very little on the supply side. The International Energy Agency tells us that staying below 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming is incompatible with any new oil and … Read more

Appropriate Applications for Green Hydrogen

Premier Inn Dubai Ibn Battuta Mall

The United States is investing $7 billion in hydrogen hubs. Our experts discussed whether governments should be subsidizing hydrogen and what the appropriate uses of hydrogen are from an efficiency and cost perspective. They also discussed which types of hydrogen projects reduce greenhouse gas emissions and which ones may actually increase them. Resources California Hydrogen … Read more

California Climate Policy Summit 2024

Sheraton Grand Sacramento Hotel, 1230 J St, Sacramento, CA 95814
California Climate Policy Summit 2024

Thank you to everyone who joined us for the third annual California Climate Policy Summit! We’re honored to have brought together more than 350 climate activists, environmental justice advocates, state decision-makers, elected officials, business leaders, scientists, and policy experts to build support for climate policy commensurate with what science demands. Additional videos, session transcripts, slides, and … Read more

| Press Release

Big Oil’s Q3 lobbying spending brings year-to-date total to $20.6 million in last-ditch effort to kill California climate bills

Oil and gas interests have spent more on lobbying than all of 2022 with one quarter remaining

Activists gather near an Inglewood Oil Field in Los Angeles, one of the largest contiguous urban oil fields in the country, to urge the Governor of California to take action to phase out fossil fuels, beginning with those within 2500 feet of homes and other sensitive sites.

SACRAMENTO — Lobbying disclosures from Quarter 3, representing lobbying between July 1 and September 30, 2023, show that oil companies and trade associations spent more than $7.2 million on influence-related activities in an all-out effort to kill California climate bills.  This brings the total year-to-date spending by Big Oil to more than $20.6 million, already … Read more