California has approved a very bold plan to reduce pollution that warms the planet

It’s been a big week on the climate front. On the same day state utility regulators cut rooftop solar incentives, state air regulators approved a very ambitious roadmap to reduce global heating emissions. The overall goals include reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the middle of this decade and achieving net zero carbon emissions no later than 2045.

Climate justice policy advocate Kyle Heiskala of the nonprofit Environmental Health Coalition said the plan approved Thursday includes big wins at the local level, such as goals to drastically reduce travel by car and to encourage more investment in public transport, which many low-income people rely on.

“What we’ve seen with this updated scoping plan is that, really for the first time, meaningful shifts toward the centering of environmental justice,” Heiskala said. “The challenge ahead of us is to create this cross-agency collaboration that leverages the lived experience of community members who use public transit every day.”

Pollution spewed from cars and trucks accounts for more than 40% of the state’s total emissions, so there’s a need to not only get more people into electric vehicles, but also to make us drive far less. The plan calls for Californians to travel 25% fewer miles by 2030, but that’s a big “if.”

LA alone has a history of leaving public transit promises unfulfilled and is far behind its own mobility plan, while LA Metro plans to expand freeways again and reverse any emissions cuts from improvements public transport.

The California Air Resources Board predicts that there will be unprecedented growth and development of renewable energy sources to meet the demands of the future.

(California Air Resources Board

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Implementing the plan as a whole will be a major challenge. Heiskala said that while members and advocates of the environmental justice community were much more involved in developing the plan, the goals are still quite broad and have big assumptions, with little detail on how to achieve them. reach.

“While there has been this shift in working more closely with environmental justice,” he said, “there is still potential to continue the legacy of environmental racism and harm frontline communities. living in the most polluted areas of California”.

That’s partly because the plan relies heavily on controversial technologies like hydrogen, biogas and artificial carbon capture, which essentially captures carbon from power plant smokestacks before it enters. in the atmosphere to further warm the planet. Opponents fear this is just another way to extend the life of the fossil fuel industry.

Carbon capture also doesn’t remove dangerous air pollutants like benzene, said Olivia Seideman, climate policy coordinator with the nonprofit Leadership Council for Justice and Accountability in Fresno. Much of the carbon captured from LA-area power plants is planned to be stored underground in the Central Valley.

“We see a huge reliance on these technologies,” Seideman said. “This is a very big concern for communities across California who experience disproportionate air pollution loads. We really should be prioritizing direct emissions reductions and natural carbon sequestration whenever possible.”

The plan also incorporates how changing agriculture and conserving land are key to sequestering carbon and reducing emissions.

The California Air Resources Board’s projected increases in electricity demand by sector.

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In the plan, the state believes it will need to at least double the amount of electricity it generates to support more electric vehicles, electric appliances and other efforts to get rid of fossil fuels. To do this, the state will need to quadruple its solar and wind power, which means – in the next 13 years alone – efforts to build large-scale solar and battery storage will need to accelerate by 700%.