Our Comment on California Air Resources Board Draft 2022 Scoping Plan
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As mandated by AB32, the state must develop a Scoping Plan every five years to assess progress towards the statutory 2030 target of 40 percent reduction in greenhouse gasses, while laying out a path to achieving carbon neutrality no later than 2045. The 2022 Scoping Plan Update focuses on outcomes needed to achieve carbon neutrality by assessing paths for clean technology, energy deployment, natural and working lands, and others, and is designed to meet the State’s long-term climate objectives and support a range of economic, environmental, energy security, environmental justice, and public health priorities. This is the fourth such scoping plan, following the first one released in 2008.
We submitted a comment on California’s new Scoping Plan for economy-wide decarbonization. This was an important moment to highlight the critical role of school buildings and grounds in reaching the state’s 2045 goals, both for California’s success and as an example to other states that are setting climate objectives and creating scoping plans.
We asked for the following amendments to the scoping plan:
Name and prioritize K-12 public school buildings and grounds in this scoping plan.
Prioritize both decarbonization and climate resilience in school facilities investments.
Ensure school district leaders are actively engaged in local planning processes.
Ensure school infrastructure investments in response to COVID-19 align with state climate goals.
As a result of the comment, the Board included schools in their final 2022 Scoping Plan for Building Decarbonization with a call for increased incentives to help schools make the transition.
