Our Comment on California Air Resources Board Draft 2022 Scoping Plan
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We submitted a comment on California’s new Scoping Plan for economy-wide decarbonization alongside the California Federation of Teachers, Ten Strands, and Rewiring America. As one of California’s largest sectors of public infrastructure, our statewide climate goals cannot be met without including K-12 schools as part of the solution.
We’re asking 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.
Please read the full statement here.
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.
While the scoping plan continues California's strong leadership towards its 2045 carbon neutral goals, it is nearly silent on the contributions of school buildings and grounds – a large and highly visible part of the state’s infrastructure – and the role of schools in preparing young people for the emerging economy. This is 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.
The 2022 scoping plan from the California Air Resources Board can be found here.
