Over a Billion in Funding for California Climate Solutions at Stake

Today, a diverse coalition of conservation, transit, housing, environmental justice, business and sustainable agriculture groups came together to call on Governor Brown and legislative leaders to finish the job of investing in climate change solutions in our communities.

The call for climate investment comes just days after Governor Brown, Senate Pro Tem Kevin de León, Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins and Assembly Speaker-elect Anthony Rendon returned from the Paris climate change talks. California’s leadership on these issues was much hailed at the international meeting.

While California has made great strides in tackling climate change, all have acknowledged there is some unfinished business to do at the beginning of 2016. At the end of the 2015 legislative session, the Governor and state legislature did not finalize investments from the state’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. The lack of agreement on investments meant over a billion dollars in funding for community-based climate solutions, including funding to support innovative sustainable agricultural efforts, were left on the table.

You can read the letter to Governor Brown and legislative leaders here. Among the programs left without funding is the Governor’s Healthy Soils Initiative, aimed at providing on-the-ground resources for the state’s growers and ranchers to increase carbon sequestration and decrease greenhouse gas emissions overall. Every day we do not invest these funds, we miss the opportunity to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

Stay tuned. Governor Brown will release his budget by January 10. CalCAN will report back on the Governor’s proposal for 2015-16 and 2016-17 climate investments and how you can make your voice heard.