We are assessing the effectiveness of California’s integration of justice into its economy-wide comprehensive climate change planning documents—its “scoping plans”—considering the role of statutory directives, agency planning processes, and the role of the Environmental Justice Advisory Committee and community participation.
California’s “scoping plans” integrate the state’s multiple strategies for reducing net greenhouse gas emissions. In 2006, AB 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act, tasked the California Air Resources Board (CARB) with responsibility for working across the state’s agencies to develop a scoping plan to meet the state’s initial 2020 emissions target, setting out a scoping plan framework that continues to guide the state’s plans for achieving increasingly stringent emissions targets.
The scoping plans, updated every five years, set out sector-specific objectives, consider cross-sector dynamics, and assess the potential economic and environmental implications of emission-reduction goals and strategies.
The final 2022 scoping plan sets out significant climate emissions reduction targets for California and seeks to address emissions from a variety of sources.
The following figures from the California Air Resources Board convey total emissions by sector (left) and 2030 and 2050 statewide climate emission reduction targets (right)
On December 15, 2022, California finalized its 2022 Scoping Plan for Achieving Carbon Neutrality.
In June 2022, the Center for Progressive Reform submitted comments on the draft 2022 scoping plan from the California Air Resources Board.
The Center for Progressive Reform joined other advocates in testifying on the scoping plan in December 2022.
Photograph at top courtesy of Shane Ysais, Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice (CCAEJ).