User:StassieKrosten/Climate change policy of California

Lead
As the most populated state in the United States, California's climate policies influence both global climate change and federal climate policy. In line with the views of climate scientists, the state of California has progressively passed emission-reduction legislation.

In California, climate change policy has been developed through both the executive and legislative branches of the state government. Many of the policies have specifically targeted greenhouse gas emissions, which have been shown to raise global temperatures and skew natural rhythms.

One of the most notable pieces of climate legislation in California was Assembly Bill 32. This landmark piece of legislation required many actors in California’s economy to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. The bill also appointed the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to devise policies and mechanisms for reaching the goal. CARB ultimately implemented the state’s cap-and-trade program, a type of emissions trading, the first such program in the United States. California was able to reach the emissions target four years ahead of schedule, in 2016.

Article body
Environmental justice proponents advocate for the reversal of the historical trend of dumping pollution on BIPOC, low-income, Hispanic and Latino communities. Communities of color are significantly more likely to live near major polluters, which emit both GHGs and particulate matter into the surrounding air. Environmental justice advocates assert that a cap-and-trade program does not call for sufficient protections for historically marginalized communities. Instead, it allows leaders the flexibility to act on the global issue of climate change without adequately addressing the more local issue of air pollution.