Climate Change Preparedness, Resiliency, and Jobs for Communities Program: climate-beneficial projects: grant funding.

Existing law establishes the Transformative Climate Communities Program, to be administered by the Strategic Growth Council, and requires the program to fund the development and implementation of neighborhood-level transformative climate community plans that include multiple, coordinated greenhouse gas emissions reduction projects that provide local economic, environmental, and health benefits to disadvantaged communities identified by the California Environmental Protection Agency. Existing law requires the council to award competitive grants to eligible entities, as specified, through an application process and to develop guidelines and selection criteria for plan development and implementation of the program, as provided. This bill would establish the Climate Change Preparedness, Resiliency, and Jobs for Communities Program, to be administered by the council, and would require the council to fund grants to develop and implement multibenefit, community-level, climate-beneficial projects to support community and landscape resiliency and workforce development. The bill would require the council to award competitive grants to eligible entities, as defined, through an application process, as provided. The bill would require the council, on or before July 1, 2024, to develop guidelines to implement the program and criteria to select projects eligible for grant funding that include, at a minimum, specified information related to community resiliency grants, landscape resiliency grants, and climate and career pathways grants.