California’s Climate Policies Require Robust Data

Abstract:

For over a decade, California has deployed a suite of climate policies to achieve its ambitious greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction mandates. To date, this suite of policies has primarily focused on mitigation of GHGs from fossil energy and industrial sectors. This portfolio of policies helped the State achieve its 2020 GHG reduction target four years earlier than mandated in law. Looking forward, California has a more stringent target of 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030, achieving carbon neutrality by mid-century, and becoming net negative thereafter. A critical part in achieving these future targets is better understanding of and mitigating emissions from the natural and working lands sector. To date, emissions from the natural and working lands sector have been excluded from being directly regulated in the State’s emissions trading system due to limitations in having the same stringency in quantification methods as exist for the fossil energy and industrial sectors. As the State begins planning for the carbon neutrality target, there is an increasing need to understand sources and sinks of emissions from all sectors, especially from the natural and working lands sector. This panel would provide a venue for California to share the status of its current and emerging needs for carbon monitoring.