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Climate Mitigation and Adaptation News
January 23rd, 2024
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Stay up to date and follow the Capital Region Climate
Readiness Collaborative on social media!
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CivicSpark Partner Applications Are Open Now!
Since 2014, CivicSpark—the award-winning and evidence-based AmeriCorps program powered by CivicWell—has helped over 300 communities in California, Washington, and Colorado build their capacity to meet resilience goals while providing a launchpad for almost 1,000 emerging leaders.
Each year, CivicSpark recruits Fellows through a highly competitive application process. Fellows spend 11 months embedded in government agencies and community organizations, serving 1,400 hours implementing a needed sustainability and resilience project, while also building long-term capacity to ensure the work is sustained after their service year.
Applications to host a CivicSpark Fellow for the 2024-2025 service year are now open!
Call For Session Proposals (CFSP) for the 15th Annual CCEC Forum is Open Now!
The Call For Session Proposals (CFSP) for the 15th Annual California Climate & Energy (CCEC) Forum launched January 3rd! Over the period of one month, the California Climate & Energy Collaborative (CCEC) is soliciting proposals for workshops, panel discussions, presentations, and other sessions for the forum, so start thinking about potential topics and partners you might want to collaborate with!
Additional guidance on the CFSP process is available here.
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2024 California Environmental Assembly
January 27th, 8:30 - 5:00PM
The theme for the upcoming assembly is Life Beyond 1.5 Degrees: Hard Truths and Solutions. PCL strongly believes that we are falling short of enacting measures that will curb the climate crisis fast enough to avoid catastrophic impacts. We design our panels to focus on both immediate short-term solutions and strategies for the future. The sessions will focus on the topics of water law modernization, wildfire, transportation, CEQA, groundwater, and land use. The 2024 PCL Assembly will have three tracks with 2-3 sessions in each and will be held at UC Davis’s School of Law in King Hall. Information on speakers and registration for this event is available here.
University of California, Berkeley Climate Action Planning Tools Informational Webinar
February 1st, 11:00AM - 12:00PM
In 2023 the UC Berkeley Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory received a grant through the UC Climate Action Research Initiative to develop tools to remove common obstacles for city and county climate action. An overview of this effort will be provided at the upcoming webinar taking place February 1st, 11:00am - 12:00pm. The grant funded project scope includes traditional and consumption-based greenhouse gas emissions inventories for all local governments in California, a policy analysis tool for common climate action measures, and a series of articles on climate data and action through the School of Journalism. The tools produced through this effort will seek to integrate critical environmental, social, and economic performance indicators, such as historical energy burdens, vulnerable populations, and green jobs. This webinar will highlight the launch of the project’s Local Government Needs Assessment and provide an overview to the effort’s outreach strategy that will take place throughout 2024 and into 2025.
If you are interested in participating in this discussion and hearing the most recent updates on this effort please feel free to register for this upcoming webinar here.
California Climate Policy Summit
March 19th, 2024 9:00AM PST - 5:00PM
Sheraton Grand Sacramento Hotel, 1230 J St, Sacramento
The third annual California Climate Policy Summit will bring together elected and business leaders, policy experts, state officials, activists, and environmental justice advocates to build support for climate policy commensurate with what science demands. Early-bird registration is now open!
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The RiverArc Project: Shifting Water Supplies For Economic and Environmental Vitality
The majority of the Sacramento area’s water resources come from the American River, a sensitive state- and federally-designated Wild & Scenic tributary of the Sacramento River. The RiverArc Project, a partnership of water agencies in the region, will shift a significant portion of that demand to the much larger Sacramento River. This diversification of the water supply is critical to the entire region’s future sustainability and prosperity. Read this full report here.
ARCCA Governor's January Budget Summary
This summary has been prepared by the Alliance of Regional Collaboratives for Climate Adaptation (ARCCA) and the California Resilience Partnership (CRP) to provide greater insights into the proposed reversions, reductions, and delays in funding for climate adaptation and resilience-focused programs. This full report is available here.
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Who’s Running for Sacramento City Council in March 2024? Here are the Candidates
CapRadio
Four Sacramento City Council seats are up for election in the March 2024 primary. Voters living in Districts 2, 4, 6 and 8 will weigh in on who represents their area on the city’s law-making body. Only the District 8 election is uncontested, with Council member Mai Vang running for another term unopposed. Read this full article here.
Stockton, Sacramento Rank as Nationwide "Asthma Capitals" Thanks to Bad Air Quality
CBS News
The San Joaquin Valley is home to some of the worst air quality in the country. So it might come as no surprise to hear Stockton is ranked among the worst cities in the country for asthma. The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America put out a list of the nation's top 100 "Asthma Capitals" for 2023. Stockton ranked 41st on the list. The only California city to rank worse was Fresno, the ninth "Asthma Capital" in the country. "It is appalling, it is disturbing to me as a mom," said Kimberly Warmsley, a Stockton city council member. Warmsley is also an asthmatic herself. Read this full article here.
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California Gov. Newsom Proposes Some Housing and Climate Cuts to Balance $38 Billion Budget Deficit
AP News
California Gov. Gavin Newsom released details Wednesday of a new $291 billion state spending plan for the 2024-25 budget year that accounts for an estimated $37.9 billion deficit. Newsom, a Democrat, proposed covering the shortfall by tapping $13 billion from reserves, trimming $8.5 billion from programs, deferring some spending to the future and spreading it out over more years. Read this full article here.
California Awards $21.7 Million to Bolster Regional-Scale Climate Resilience Across the State
Governor's Office of Planning and Research
On December 21st, 2023, state leaders unveiled a $21.7 million funding initiative in the inaugural round of California’s Regional Resilience Grant, part of the Integrated Climate Adaptation and Resiliency Program (ICARP). This Grant, supported by the Governor’s multi-year climate budget, aims to fortify climate change resilience at a regional level. The initiative will support 16 new regional partnerships, uniting public entities, California Native American tribes, Community-Based Organizations, and academic institutions. Read this full article here.
Here’s Your 2024 Timeline for California Climate and Environment Issues
The Orange County Register News
Will El Niño make this another wet winter, keeping drought and wildfires at bay in California for a second year in a row? Or will we see a return to the climate-fueled “new normal” of hotter, drier weather — and the risks those conditions bring? Will California’s strained budget mean more cuts to climate programs? Or will lawmakers find creative ways to safeguard that funding? Adrian Martinez, a Los Angeles-based attorney for the climate advocacy group Earthjustice, says one thing is clear: “2024 is going to be a major year for the environment in California.” Here’s a timeline of some key climate and environment issues expected to affect Californians over the next 12 months. Read this full article here.
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In Case You Missed It: Sites Reservoir Project Finally Gets Green Light, Construction Expected to Begin in 2024
CapRadio
Located just over an hour north of Sacramento in Glenn and Colusa counties lies 14,000 acres of grassland, streams and the main canal of the two counties’ shared irrigation district. It’s the site of the planned Sites Reservoir, which has long been eyed as a possible place to store excess surface water from across California. The project was first proposed in the 1950s, but failed — and was re-proposed several times since then. Now, after roughly 70 years and several iterations, the off-river storage basin west of the Sacramento Valley is being streamlined and moving forward. Read this full article here.
Center for Biological Diversity Reports Sacramento Superior Court Strikes Down Financing for Delta Tunnel Project - Ruling Deals Blow to Massive Water Diversion Plan
Sierra Sun Times
This week's first big rain of the season has been a welcome sight, but it's also been a reminder of the reality of what happened in some places of Sacramento County after too much rainfall last winter. Jon Boats are used to traverse areas of shallow water. Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District Captain Parker Wilbourn said his department purchased those boats for water rescue events, and that planning paid off after a dozen atmospheric rivers led to devastating flooding in the town of Wilton, east of Elk Grove, last January. "These resources were instrumental in effecting those rescues," Wibourn said. Read this full article here.
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Smokey Bear — and Californians’ Relationship with Fire — Gets an Update in UC Davis Art Exhibition
CapRadio
If you’re driving on Interstate 80 between Sacramento and Davis, you might spot a billboard displaying an animal wildfire mascot. But it isn’t Smokey Bear. It’s Burnie the Bobcat, with a new slogan: Only you can decide our fiery future. “We thought, what if Smokey Bear could use a friend?” said Emily Schlickman, an assistant professor of landscape architecture and environmental design at UC Davis. “But a friend that would light fires instead of fighting them.” The billboard is an advertisement for the new “Pyro Futures” exhibition, which opened at the start of January at the university’s Manetti Shrem Museum. Schlickman, alongside UC Davis professor of landscape architecture Brett Milligan, built the exhibition off a chapter of the book they co-authored called “Design By Fire.” Read this full article here.
Disclosing Wildfire Risks in Home Sales
Resources for the Future
Damages from wildfires in the United States are on the rise. Of the top 10 costliest wildfires in terms of insured losses, eight have occurred since 2017. One reason for the rising costs of wildfires is the growing number of people and property in harm’s way. The wildland-urban interface, where the built environment meets or intermingles with areas of wildland vegetation—including areas with high potential for fire hazards—is by some accounts the fastest-growing land area in the United States. Read more here.
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2023 Was Hottest Year on Record as Earth Closed in on Critical Warming Mark, European Agency Confirms
CBS News
Earth last year shattered global annual heat records, flirted with the world's agreed-upon warming threshold and showed more signs of a feverish planet, the European climate agency said Tuesday. In one of the first of several teams of science agencies to calculate how off-the-charts warm 2023 was, the European climate agency Copernicus said the year was 1.48 degrees Celsius (2.66 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times. That's barely below the 1.5 degrees Celsius limit that the world hoped to stay within in the 2015 Paris climate accord to avoid the most severe effects of warming. Read this full article here.
December Was One of the Warmest on Record in California
The New York Times
Despite all the holiday songs about sun-baked beaches and snowless Christmas celebrations, December in California actually tends to be cool and damp - usually. December 2023 was a major exception — the toastiest the state has experienced since 1958, and the fourth warmest since record-keeping began in 1895, according to data from the Western Regional Climate Center. Temperatures were, on average, 4.2 degrees higher than normal. Read more here.
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The Capital Region Climate Readiness Collaborative is a membership based collaborative network designed to promote greater climate change resilience planning coordination in the six-county Sacramento Region. The purpose of this collaborative network is to create a forum where leaders from government, academia, environmental and community groups, the business community, and labor can come together to exchange information, identify vulnerabilities and data gaps, leverage resources, and advance comprehensive solutions in an effort to create stronger, sustainable, and economically viable communities in the Capital Region. | | | | |
