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Kamala Harris’ Plan For International Climate Cooperation Could Smooth the Transition From Fossil Fuels

by Aimee Barnes, State of the Planet Highlights Senator Kamala Harris’ “Climate Plan for the People” platform during her Presidential campaign highlighted the creation of an international coalition to manage the transition away from fossil fuel production In order to reach the best-case climate scenario as proposed by the Paris Agreement, the world will need … Read more

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Harris and Ocasio-Cortez team up on a Climate ‘Equity’ Bill

by Ilana Cohen, Inside Climate News Highlights California Senator Kamala Harris and Representative Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez unveiled an updated version of their Climate Equity Act that was initially released a year ago as Senator Harris was running for the Democratic Presidential nomination The Climate Equity Act would: Create an Office of Climate and Environmental Justice Accountability  … Read more

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Congressional climate strategy includes microgrids and climate justice

Last week, Democrats on the US House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis issued a report, “Solving the Climate Crisis, “ which provides an emissions reduction policy framework which seeks to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Here’s a link to a summary article from Vox about the report.  One of the recommendations in the report is … Read more

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The plan meant to unite Biden and Bernie voters on climate is here

by Emily Pontecorvo, Grist Highlights After Senator Bernie Sanders dropped out of the race for the Democratic nomination, he joined forces with Former Vice President Joe Biden to create a climate task force Other members of the task force included Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Sunrise Movement co-founder Varshini Prakash, and Catherine Flowers, the founder of the … Read more

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House Democrats’ climate plan is ambitious, but is it enough?

On Tuesday House Democrats unveiled a package of more than 120 pieces of legislation that seek to drive a transition to net zero carbon emissions by 2050, and the plan ties climate action to racial justice. Some pundits are saying that the plan shows just how far progressives have pushed the climate conversation. The plan is very similar to the Green New Deal, but lacks a ban on fracking and other rapid fossil fuel phase-out measures that will be required to avoid already looming climate catastrophe.

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DNC climate group calls for larger federal investment on climate than Biden’s current plan

by Rachel Frazin, The Hill Highlights The Democratic National Committee Climate Council released a set of policy recommendations for a greater investment than Joe Biden’s climate plan Joe Biden’s climate plan would spend $1.7 trillion over the next decade to address climate change, whereas the Climate Council plan endorses spending $10-16 trillion over the same period … Read more

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Democrats united behind a climate policy plan, but the timeline is based on old science

by David Roberts, Vox Highlights Broad alignment amongst the Democratic party on climate policy may help the left unite and fight the climate crisis  Working on policy platform with the input of people from different backgrounds, identities, and environmental experiences helped built trust The long list of Democratic presidential hopefuls had a much more expanded … Read more

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Earth Day 2030: California celebrates reaching net-negative emissions

Golden Gate by Benjamin W.

Let’s imagine it is April 2030. In the early 2020s, as the coronavirus pandemic swept the world, we in California finally addressed the climate crisis at the speed and scale science demanded. Nation & World Collaborating for Speed & Scale Climate Action Today, Earth Day 2030, we celebrate the deep systemic changes we have collectively … Read more

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LEGISLATIVE UPDATE – March 27, 2020

Due to the COVID-19 disruption, the legislature has gone into recess until April 13 at the earliest. While the legislature is on recess, The Climate Center continues to analyze the bills that were introduced in February, and is in the process of determining positions on many of them. Below are several, but not all, of … Read more

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Op-ed: California has a long way to go on climate policy

California State Capitol by Andre m

By Jacques Leslie, Los Angeles Times Highlights California’s cap-and-trade program alone won’t be sufficient to reach the state’s goals, including its mandate to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 40% below 1990 levels by 2030. Energy Innovation, a San Francisco think tank, spent more than two years developing a computer model called an Energy Policy Simulator to … Read more