User:Jmluong/Climate change policy of California

Legislation
See California Climate Executive Orders for a detailed outline of executive orders signed by California governors that focus on climate change.

California is one of the US’ leaders in enacting climate change policy. Starting in the early 2000s, several executive orders focused on climate change were signed by California governors. The California State Legislature has passed numerous bills to enact the changes and regulations that were necessary to meet the goals outlined in those executive orders. These policies address issues in emissions measurement, transportation, waste, and energy in California.

The following is a list notable climate change legislation in chronological order:


 * SB 1771 (2000)
 * SB 527 (2001)
 * SB 812 (2002)
 * AB 1493 (2002)
 * AB 1007 (2005)
 * AB 32 (2006)
 * SB 375 (2008)
 * SB 535 (2012)
 * SB 1204 (2014)
 * SB 1275 (2014)
 * SB 1383 (2016)

These bills will be detailed in the categories below.

Emissions Measurement
Climate change is driven by the accelerated amount of greenhouse gas emissions being put into the atmosphere by anthropgenic activity. To combat climate change, national and state governments around the world are struggling to control their emissions levels. Setting emissions reductions goals and using effective emissions-measurement technology is necessary to reduce emissions and keep track of progress across time. According to the 2022 IPCC report, the world needs to cut its emissions in half by the year 2030 to limit warming to 1.5o Celsius. The California legislative body has been paying attention to the importance of cutting emissions ever since the 2000s.

SB 1771 (2000)
keep whats there

SB 527 (2001)
keep whats there

AB 32 (2006)
AB 32 was passed in 2006. The bill imposed a limit on statewide greenhouse gasses emissions, requiring California to cut emissions down to the levels they were at in 1990 by the year 2020. The responsibility for implementing, enforcing, and monitoring progress to meet the emission goals was placed on the California Air Resources Board (ARB). Due to the extensive involvement of environmental justice groups, a cap and trade emission scheme was not specifically mandated. Instead, decisions on what system would be most effective were left up to ARB, with mandated review and revision every five years. This granted ARB enough programmatic flexibility to successfully meet the emission reduction mandate. The emissions goal was reached in 2016, four years ahead of the 2020 deadline.

Transportation
According to the EPA, transportation is the sector with the largest contribution to US greenhouse gas emissions, emitting 27% of the nation's total volume. Vehicles run on fossil fuel burning internal combustion engines, so California legislation is starting to incentivize consumers to invest in cleaner transportation powered by renewables.

AB 1493 (2002)
keep whats there

SB 375 (2008)
add stuff from bullet point, but also add onto this

SB 1204 (2014)
keep whats there

SB 1275 (2014)
keep whats there

Alternative Fuel Vehicle Incentive Program
keep whats there

SB 812 (2002)
keep whats there

SB 1383 (2016)
SB 1383, officially named California’s Short-Lived Climate Pollutant Reduction Law, was passed in 2016 by CA Governor Brown as an effort to reduce methane emissions released from decomposing organic waste. Methane is one of four well-known short-lived climate pollutants. These are greenhouse gasses that have a shorter lifetime than carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, but have a substantially higher global warming potential than carbon dioxide. Specifically, methane is 28-34 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

The new law regulates rates of organic waste disposal and food rescue.


 * Compared to 2014 levels, the law mandates that organic waste disposal in landfills must be cut in half by 2020, and 75% by 2025 . Instead of ending up at the landfill, organic waste would be diverted to commercial composting or anaerobic digestion facilities that would capture the methane released.
 * To combat the immense amount of edible food that is wasted at grocery stores and food service establishments, the new law is mandating that at least 20% of edible food gets rescued and redistributed by 2025.


 * Starting in 2022, all counties are expected to provide organic waste collection services to homes and businesses and transport the waste collected to organic waste facilities.

AB 1007 (2005)
keep whats there

 SB 535 (2012) 

SB 535 was passed in 2012. The bill required that 25% of funding sourced from the GGRF would be allocated to GHG reducing investments that benefitted disadvantaged communities. Another important stipulation was that at least ten percent of the funds had to be invested directly into disadvantaged communities. The responsibility of identifying and locating disadvantaged communities was placed on CalEPA. CalEPA created a tool called CalEnviroScreen in order to map these communities and determine who was most disadvantaged and where funding should be directed. In 2016 AB 1550 was passed in order to expand upon SB 535 and increase the initial 25% investment requirement to 35 percent.

SB 100 (2018)
SB 100, also known as The 100 Percent Clean Energy Act of 2018, marks California's firm commitment to developing renewable energy infrastructures to replace fossil fuel-powered energy. Its two main goals are:


 * by 2030, 60% of all energy generated from will be from renewable sources
 * by 2045,100% renewable energy for the whole state

The increasingly affordable costs of wind and solar technologies make these two sources the main focus of renewable energy infrastructure across California.

Cap and Trade
keep whats there

Resilience and Adaptation
keep whats there