Climate Emergency Mitigation, Safe Restoration, and Just Resilience Act of 2021.

The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 designates the State Air Resources Board as the state agency charged with monitoring and regulating sources of emissions of greenhouse gases. The state board is required to approve a statewide greenhouse gas emissions limit equivalent to the statewide greenhouse gas emissions level in 1990 to be achieved by 2020 and to ensure that statewide greenhouse gas emissions are reduced to at least 40% below the 1990 level by 2030. The act requires the state board to prepare and approve a scoping plan for achieving the maximum technologically feasible and cost-effective reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, and to update the plan not less than every 5 years. Under the act, a violation of a rule, regulation, order, emission limitation, emission reduction measure, or other measure adopted by the state board under the act is a crime. This bill would require the state board to ensure that statewide greenhouse gas emissions are reduced to at least 40% and up to 80% below the 1990 level by 2030. By expanding the scope of a crime, this bill would imposed a state-mandated local program. The bill would adopt a state policy to lead a global effort to restore oceanic and atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gas emissions to preindustrial levels as soon as possible to secure a safe climate for all, and to restore community health and reverse the impacts from the damage and injustice climate change is causing to the people, the economy, and the environment of California. The bill would require the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency, in coordination with the Secretary for Environmental Protection and the State Air Resources Board, and concurrent with the scoping plan, to develop a climate restoration plan that specifies carbon removal targets, before 2035, as necessary to facilitate achievement of those goals. Existing law establishes the Integrated Climate Adaptation and Resiliency Program, administered by the Office of Planning and Research, to coordinate regional and local efforts with state climate adaptation strategies to adapt to the impacts of climate change, as specified. This bill would require the office, in collaboration with various state entities, to develop criteria to ensure that public expenditures for projects that address climate change resilience protect the most vulnerable communities first, rectify intersectional and systemic inequities, and enhance low-income and vulnerable communities' labor standards, workers' rights, career pathways, and community benefits. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.