Late last week, the California Air Resources Board (ARB) released the draft 2030 Target Scoping Plan (Plan), the blueprint the State will use to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and impact climate change by the year 2030. The Plan, released on the heels of the Short-Lived Climate Pollutant Reduction Strategy, is the result of Senate Bill 32 (Pavley), which was signed into law earlier this year. SB 32 established a goal of reducing California’s greenhouse gas emissions to 40 percent below 1990 levels by the year 2030, codifying goals set by Governor Jerry Brown in an Executive Order earlier in 2016.
The Plan includes potential regulatory and policy strategies for a number of different sectors, including solid waste, forestry, agriculture, transportation and water. Among those strategies are the implementation of Senate Bill 1383 (Lara), which set a target for organics diversion from landfills to reduce short-lived climate emissions from methane, as well as a deadline for completion of the forest emissions inventory and the potential for more aggressive forest management strategies to achieve greater carbon sequestration and reduced black carbon emissions in California’s forest lands.
Comments on the Plan are due December 16, 2016. Detailed information on the Plan can be accessed here.