California's Climate Crisis

Equal protection from the California climate crisis

• What is the climate crisis?
• How does the climate crisis affect air quality?
• How does the climate crisis affect public health?
• AB 1405: Community Benefits Fund—equal protection from the California climate crisis
• AB 32: The Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006—protecting California’s communities from the climate crisis
  
  
  

Figure 1. The Earth's Greenhouse Effect

What is the climate crisis?

Whether you hear it called “global warming” or “climate change,” we all face the climate crisis. The buildup of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere causes an increase in the average surface air temperature of the planet, posing severe changes to our climate, air quality and public health. For a more in-depth look at the climate crisis, see our global warming FAQs.

California’s climate crisis

Scientists have reported that California is already experiencing the effects of climate crisis: increased episodes of extreme heat, air pollution, droughts, floods, and violent and unpredictable weather, as well as the increased incidence and spread of disease.

How does the climate crisis affect air quality?

According to the California EPA, “as the population of California increases, the climate warms, and forests, croplands, and native vegetation become altered, scientists expect that air pollution in coming decades may worsen.”¹

Today in California, nine out of 10 people live in polluted areas, particularly those polluted with smog. Episodes of smog and their severity are likely to increase as temperatures continually rise. Scientists have expressed concerns that climate change could slow “progress toward attainment of health-based air quality standards and increase pollution control costs by increasing the potential for high ozone and high particulate days.”²

How does the climate crisis affect public health?

Climate and weather have powerful impacts, both direct and indirect, that challenge people’s ability to cope with its fluctuations. Marked short-term changes in weather can cause acute, adverse health effects:

• Extremes of both heat and cold can potentially cause fatal illnesses, such as heat stress or hypothermia, as well as increase death rates from heart and respiratory diseases.³

• In cities, stagnant weather conditions can trap both warm air and air pollutants, leading to decreased air quality with associated health impacts.⁴

• These effects can be significant. Abnormally high temperatures in California during the summer of 2006 were associated with 140 deaths.

Figure 2. Geographic Distribution of Deaths Due to Heat, July 2006

Various other weather extremes such as floods and droughts also impact public health. For example, floods increase the risk of water-borne disease and threaten safe agricultural production. According to the Los Angeles Times, rising sea levels could cost billions of dollars in infrastructure loss, force displacement and cause severe flooding, comparable to Hurricane Katrina.⁵

AB 1405: Community Benefits Fund

Co-authored by Assemblymen Kevin De León and V. Manuel Perez

Sponsored by: Coalition for Clean Air ▪ Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment ▪ California State Office of the NACCP ▪ Greenlining Institute

View the AB 1405 fact sheet in English or Español

View the list of AB 1405 supporters and our FAQ

Read the bill language

Equal Protection from the California Climate Crisis

In adopting the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (AB 32), the State made a promise to ensure that low-income and minority communities are protected from and strengthened by California’s efforts to tackle the state’s climate crisis. However, the California Air Resources Board has yet to fulfill this promise. 

Background information:

• Many Californians are still unfairly burdened by harmful air quality and chronic respiratory illness simply because of their neighborhood.
• The California climate crisis threatens to saddle these neighborhoods with additional burdens such as air pollution, heat waves, droughts and job loss.
• We believe the majority of the 4.6 million Californians earning an income below the federal poverty level live in neighborhoods facing burdens associated with the climate crisis, such as severe air pollution.

A Solution to California’s climate crisis

Figure 3. Climate Protection Fund

Protecting all Californians, strengthening all neighborhoods

As California takes steps to solve our climate crisis, we must invest in the California neighborhoods that have suffered the most from pollution and will struggle the most with the consequences of the climate crisis. 

Community Benefits Fund

AB 1405 creates a Community Benefits Fund to direct a portion of the revenues generated through the implementation of AB 32 to help Californians who are least able to confront the expected impacts of the climate crisis at a local level. 

AB 32 – The Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006

Protecting California’s Communities from the Climate Crisis

In 2006, California passed a landmark global warming legislation, AB 32, which requires the state to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. Advocating the responsible implementation of AB 32, in December 2008 CCA urged the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to include language aimed at protecting low-income minority communities who have born the brunt of the climate crisis. We proposed an innovative three-pronged approach to a cap-and-trade program that would protect all Californians and strengthen all neighborhoods.

1. CARB should adopt a policy that identifies the California communities who are saddled with the unfair burden because they already live in highly polluted neighborhoods. By knowing which communities are most polluted, we can adopt policies that are not only protect our fellow Californians from an additional burden, but also strengthen these communities by giving them the tools they need to respond to climate change.
   
   
2. CARB should create a Community Benefits Fund so that a portion of the funds generated by a market-based approach, like a cap-and-trade program, would be allocated to protect our fellow Californians already living in highly polluted areas and strengthen these communities by funding adaptation programs.
   
   
3. CARB should adopt a policy that protects all Californians by limiting the additional pollution sources that can be relocated into these highly polluted communities.

In December 2008, California once again demonstrated bold leadership in addressing climate change by adopting some critical clean air protections developed and advocated by CCA. The plan directs CARB to identify the most polluted California communities and reaffirms the need to protect every Californian—regardless of zip code—by limiting the relocation of additional pollution sources to their neighborhoods. 

Learn more about our concept (coming soon)                                     

Read the CARB scoping plan                                                               

See the expected timeline for AB 32 implementation

Read our comment letter to CARB                                              

Read AB 32 media coverage

1 California Air Resources Board, Draft Biennial CAT Report. Chapter pages 1.26-1.27. Link

2 California Air Resources Board, Draft Biennial CAT Report. Chapter pages 1.26-1.27. Link

3 World Health Organization, “Climate and Health Fact sheet” July 2005. Link

4 World Health Organization, “Climate and Health Fact sheet” July 2005. Link

5 Roosevelt, Margot. “California panel urges 'immediate action' to protect against rising sea levels.” Los Angeles Times. March 12, 2009. Link