Accelerating Action on California’s Climate Policies and Plans for Working and Natural Lands.

retreat focus

The purpose of this retreat is to scale implementation on California’s ambitious nature-based climate solutions for working and natural lands. The retreat will especially focus on wetlands, agriculture and urban green spaces as opportune sectors where short-term progress is possible in the quest to meet the State-adopted targets for reducing and sequestering greenhouse gas emissions while advancing the health and resilience of the land, equity, biodiversity and other positive outcomes. These areas account for 17% of CA’s land, totaling over 18.1 million acres (per California’s NBS Climate Targets).

The retreat will focus on two primary objectives:  1) building a network of deeply bonded and diverse California leaders, representing a range of perspectives and programs across these land areas from local to state levels and especially those directly involved in implementation;  and 2) advancing our collective understanding of the landscape with commitment to specific actions of what initiatives and key steps are essential in the next few years to meet California’s nature-based climate goals.

BACKGROUND

*California is a global leader in combatting climate change. The State of California government set one of the world’s first binding targets to reduce carbon pollution in 2007 and since then has spearheaded action across our economy to transition to 100% clean energy and carbon neutrality by 2045. California has a comprehensive plan to achieve carbon neutrality by 2045 and to achieve an 85% reduction in anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2045

Nature-based solutions (NBS) harness the power of nature to remove carbon from our atmosphere, build California’s resilience to future climate-driven extremes, and protect communities from the climate crisis. California State leaders recognize that expanding NBS is essential to meeting California’s core climate goals and in the last few years alone has:

• Established the 2022 California’s Natural and Working Lands (NWL) Climate Smart Strategy, which identifies priority NBS to deliver climate benefits across all of California’s diverse landscapes and guides State programs and investments.

• Integrated this strategy into the State’s 2022 Scoping Plan to Achieve Carbon Neutrality by 2045.

• Identified accelerating NBS and strengthening the resilience of natural systems as one of six priority “north stars” guiding California’s 2021 Climate Adaptation Strategy.

• Invested approximately $9.6 billion since 2020 to supercharge California’s NBS climate action, as of April 2024.

• Built new partnerships with NBS leaders around the world to accelerate and scale successful efforts, including China, Australia, Canada, and South Africa.

• Enacted Assembly Bill 1757 (2022), a seminal law calling for a suite of actions to center NBS in California’s climate efforts and urgently scale their implementation in line with best available science.

As called for in Assembly Bill 1757 (2022), the California Natural Resources Agency, the California Air Resources Board, the California Environmental Protection Agency, the California Department of Food and Agriculture, and more than 40 State agency partners collaborated to develop nature-based solutions (NBS) climate targets for 2030, 2038, and 2045 that contribute to California’s goals of achieving carbon neutrality no later than 2045 and protecting Californians from the climate crisis.

*From the CA State Natural Resources Agency and CA Air Resources Board