On March 15, 2023, SB 12 — introduced by Senator Henry Stern and sponsored by The Climate Center — passed out of the California Senate Environmental Quality Committee by a final vote of five to two. The bill would require California to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55 percent below 1990 levels by 2030, accelerating … Read more
Last year, Governor Newsom signed into law a suite of climate bills to accelerate California’s climate progress and protect frontline communities. Among those new laws was AB 1757 (C. Garcia & R. Rivas), which directs state agencies to scale up the use of nature-based solutions to meet California’s climate goals. Building on an earlier bill … Read more
On February 8, 2023, the Assembly Budget Committee convened to hear public feedback on Governor Newsom’s proposed 2023-2024 state budget. The governor’s draft budget includes $6 billion in proposed cuts to climate and clean energy programs over the next several years. This budget will be revised again in May before a final vote by the … Read more
On December 15, 2022, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) voted unanimously to adopt new rules for how residential rooftop solar customers, schools, churches, farms, and businesses will be compensated for the electricity they deliver back to the grid. Unfortunately, pressure from corporate utilities resulted in a proposal that would slash the rate paid to these solar … Read more
On December 15, 2022, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) held its final public hearing related to the 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 … Read more
For The Climate Center, the UN’s 27th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27) was an opportunity to host California policymakers at events to showcase California’s recent climate accomplishments and learn from others around the world. The outcome of the official UN proceedings, however, was a … Read more
The California Air Resources Board’s (CARB) updated Scoping Plan, the state’s five-year climate blueprint, will play a key role in determining the direction of California’s climate policy. California must lead the way with bold, accelerated, and equitable climate policies. With CARB’s December deadline looming, The Climate Center and our allies are urging the agency to: … Read more
‘To change everything, it takes everyone.’ I remember hearing and seeing this phrase everywhere during the first half of my career in climate advocacy, starting with the People’s Climate March in 2014. Nearly a decade later, it’s still true. Big, systemic changes require people power. But for all we know about what needs to be … Read more
I am thrilled to join The Climate Center as a Senior Climate Researcher. I am an economist who started my career teaching in universities in England, Canada, and the United States. Included in the varied career hats I have worn was a spell in a private corporation, where I was told to find what the … Read more
On Tuesday, September 13, the Stockton City Council voted unanimously to join the East Bay Community Energy Community Choice Aggregation joint powers authority. “I’ve been working on this goal since 2016 because I recognize that Community Choice Energy offers opportunities not only to increase consumer choice and strengthen the Stockton economy, but to also address the climate … Read more
