SACRAMENTO — Assemblymembers Al Muratsuchi (D-Torrance) and Cristina Garcia’s (D-Bell Gardens) AB 1395, the California Climate Crisis Act, passed the Senate Environmental Quality Committee on a 5-2 vote on July 13.
This bill will codify California’s commitment to achieve net zero carbon emissions by or before 2045, and net negative carbon emissions thereafter. The bill will also require the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to provide a roadmap on how to get to this critical benchmark to fight the global climate crisis.
AB 1395 will:
• Require the California Air Resources Board to update the scoping plan to identify and recommend measures to achieve carbon neutrality by or before 2045, and maintain net negative emissions thereafter.
• Require a 90 percent reduction in human-caused greenhouse gas emission from the state’s 1990 emission level be achieved through direct emission reductions, consistent with an October 2020 CARB-commissioned study.
• Highlight the critical importance of innovative carbon capture and storage (CCS) solutions and require the CARB to establish criteria for the use of CCS and other technology-based solutions for purposes of achieving net zero carbon emissions.
• Require CARB to identify a variety of policies and strategies that support nature-based climate solutions to achieve durable greenhouse gas emissions reductions or carbon removals.
Muratsuchi declared, “The climate crisis is here and now, and we are the boiling frogs. With record extreme heat, wildfires, drought, and sea level rise, we cannot go on with business as usual. AB 1395 will codify California’s commitment to net zero carbon emissions, while requiring the California Air Resources Board to create a roadmap for California to get to this critical goal with a combination of dramatic emission reductions and innovative carbon capture and storage, carbon dioxide removal, and nature-based climate solutions.”
“There is no action more crucial to the present and future health and vitality of our communities than lowering society’s carbon footprint,” said Garcia. “The most efficient means to achieve that goal is to reach carbon neutrality across our globe. AB 1395 offers a substantive public policy solution to ensure that California achieves that profound moral obligation in the next 20 years.”
A special report on the impacts of global warming from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concludes that limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius would reduce the probability, intensity, and frequency of such climate-related events. The IPCC report also notes that in order to limit warming to 1.5°C, we must reach net zero carbon dioxide emissions around 2050 with concurrent deep reductions in other greenhouse gas emissions such as methane. In order to reach net zero emissions, California needs to aggressively reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and urgently deploy negative emissions technologies to remove the GHGs already in the atmosphere.
In recognition of this crisis, in September 2018 former Gov. Jerry Brown issued Executive Order B-55-18, which mandates that California achieve carbon neutrality by 2045 and maintain net negative emissions thereafter. AB 1395 furthers the intent of this executive order by requiring a 90 percent of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emission be achieved through reductions and establishing criteria for the use of innovative carbon capture and storage solutions for purposes of achieving these policy goals.
In order for California to reach emissions neutrality by 2045, California needs a comprehensive climate strategy that decreases gross emissions, while simultaneously increasing carbon dioxide removal.
Muratsuchi represents the 66th Assembly District, which includes El Camino Village, Gardena, Harbor City, Harbor Gateway, Hermosa Beach, Lomita, Los Angeles, Manhattan Beach, Palos Verdes Estates, Rancho Palos Verdes, Redondo Beach, Rolling Hills, Rolling Hills Estates, Torrance, and West Carson. He is the chair of the Joint Legislative Committee on Climate Change Policies and the Assembly Select Committee on Aerospace and a member of the Assembly committees on Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials; Natural Resources; Utilities and Energy; Veterans Affairs; and Water, Parks and Wildlife.