AB 32
CARB and AB 32 — a roadmap you can trust
Here are Sierra Club California's comments
(PDF) on the Scoping Plan for AB 32 devised by California Air Resources
Board last year. Not all of Sierra Club's ideas made the final cut,
but they are displayed here for possible future advocacy.
AB 32 is California's landmark 2006 law to reduce global
warming emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, about 30% from business-as-usual
projected for 2020, 15% from today’s levels, with a long-range
goal of 80% from 1990 levels by 2050 (chart below; click
to enlarge).
The California Air Resources Board (CARB) passed the AB 32 Scoping
Plan on 12/11/08 (press
release)
The largest two sectors of greenhouse gas emissions (below) are
transportation — 38% — and electricity generation
— 23%.
This timeline below shows CARB's first milestones in 2007; developing
the high-level Scoping Plan over the last year; and the upcoming
detailed rulemaking through 2011 to implement it.
Following is the overview of how the Scoping Plan expects to reduce
emissions.
Recommended Reduction Measures — Counted Towards 2020 Target
(MMTCO2E*)
ESTIMATED REDUCTIONS FROM CAP AND TRADE PROGRAM AND COMPLEMENTARY
MEASURES — 146.7
California Light-Duty Vehicle Greenhouse Gas Standards — 31.7
Energy Efficiency — 26.3
Renewables Portfolio Standard (33% by 2020) — 21.3
Low Carbon Fuel Standard — 15
Regional Transportation-Related GHG Targets — 5
Vehicle Efficiency Measures — 4.5
Goods Movement — 3.7
Million Solar Roofs — 2.1
Medium/Heavy Duty Vehicles — 1.4
High Speed Rail — 1.0
Industrial Measures (cap-and-trade sources) — 0.3
Additional Reductions Necessary to Achieve the Cap — 34.4
ESTIMATED REDUCTIONS FROM UNCAPPED SOURCES — 27.3
High Global Warming Potential Gas Measures — 20.2
Sustainable Forests — 5.0
Industrial Measures (non-cap and trade sources) — 1.1
Recycling and Waste (landfill methane capture) — 1.0
TOTAL REDUCTIONS COUNTED TOWARDS 2020 TARGET — 174
*Million Metric Tons of CO2 Equivalent emissions. Source (PDF),
page 2, update to Proposed Scoping Plan (PDF), Table 2, page 17
(PDF page 37). Charts source (PDF).
CARB Chairman Mary Nichols (left, above) and board members Barbara
Riordan and Dr. Daniel Sperling at the December 2007 meeting in
El Monte that set the 2020 emissions limit at 427 MMTCO2E.
CARB's senior staff, led by Chuck Shulock (left, below), at a July
public workshop during development of the Scoping Plan.
Updated 9/7/09
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