CEQA and Climate Change: Partnering with Local Agencies to Combat Global Warming. The Urgency of Global Warming

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1 CEQA and Climate Change: Partnering with Local Agencies to Combat Global Warming The Urgency of Global Warming Clifford Rechtschaffen California Attorney General s Office May 23, 2008, Monterey 1

2 Arctic Melt Unnerves the Experts A report this summer showed the largest decline of summer Arctic sea ice ever recorded. The decline broke the previous record low (in 2005) by over 450,000 square miles - roughly the size of Texas and California combined Lyell Glacier Yosemite National Park

3 13 F California Climate Impacts (over the past 100 years) ºF 11 F ºF higher temperatures ~7 inch sea level rise 12% decrease in fraction of runoff between April and July Snowmelt and spring blooms advanced 2 days/decade since Cal/EPA-OEHHA, Environmental Protection Indicators for California (2002), Projected Global Warming Impact on California 13 F (as compared with ) Business as Usual Emissions ( F) Medium-High Emissions (5.5-8 F) Lower Emissions (Governor s 2050 target) (3-5.5 F) 90% loss in Sierra snowpack inches of sea level rise 3-4 times as many heat wave days 70-80% loss in Sierra snowpack inches of sea level rise times as many heat wave days 30-60% loss in Sierra snowpack 6-14 inches of sea level rise times as many heat wave days Our Changing Climate: Assessing the Risks to California (2006), 3

4 Number of Days Bay Area Ozone and Maximum Temp Trends Days at or above 99º F and Days Exceeding National 8hr Ozone Standard 20 # days at or above 99F # days at or above the National Ozone standard (85ppb) Year Highest Smog Levels 5 out of the 10 most polluted cities in the nation are in California Los Angeles (1) Bakersfield (2) Visalia (3) Fresno (5) Sacramento (6) 4

5 Air Pollution Deaths Every 1 C (1.8 F) rise in temperature = 1,000 more deaths per year than normal More than 30% of these deaths will be in California Impacts will be most severe where pollution is already worst Increases in Forest Fires.) 5

6 Loss Snowpack Increasing Warming Reduced hydropower generation in the summer Substantial reductions of water for agriculture Need to Act Now "If there's no action before 2012, that's too late. What we do in the next two to three years will determine our future." Rajendra Pachauri, Chair of the IPCC 6

7 California Takes the Lead "Governor Schwarzenegger spoke about the dangers of global warming. Schwarzenegger's exact words were: fire, hot, bad." --Conan O'Brien US Cool Cities 973 Cities (124 in CA) Meet Kyoto Targets of 7% below 1990 by

8 Cities Alameda Cotati Rohnert Park Albany Davis Sacramento Anaheim Los Altos San Diego Arcata Los Angeles San Francisco Berkeley Mission Viejo San Rafael Counties Sonoma County Marin County San Francisco County Brisbane Chula Vista Costa Mesa Novato Oakland Pasadena Petaluma Richmond Santa Barbara Santa Cruz Santa Monica Sebastopol Sonoma San Mateo County Rocklin Stockton Alameda County West Hollywood Windsor Cities & Counties with Climate Action Plans or Green Building Ordinances 8

9 Projected Population Growth for the Central Coast Region The current population is about 1.5 million By 2020, the population will be 2 million 2.5 Population (in millions) Nearly a ½ million more people in a little over 10 years! Compact Development Reduces VMT 9

10 Building Design Matters More than 2/3 of electricity consumption in California is attributed to the residential and commercial sectors 20-30% is lost through inefficiency Transportation Agricultural Residential Mining Industrial Commercial Water Conservation Matters Water-related energy use consumes 19+% of California s electricity, 30+% of its natural gas, and 88+ billion gallons of diesel fuel annually. State Water Project is largest single user of electricity in State 2-3% percent 10

11 Santa Cruz Water Conservation Residential rebates & programs High efficiency toilets High efficiency clothes washers Homes must be retrofitted with low consumption plumbing fixtures at time of sale City of Monterey Joins Mayors Climate Protection Agreement 11

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13 Resources California Climate Change Portal ( Governor s Office of Planning and Research, CEQA Guidelines and Greenhouse Gases: Local Government Commission. California Attorney General s Office, global warming website: ICLEI, Institute for Local Government, CAPCOA, CEQA and Climate Change, 13