AB 32 Scoping Plan Update Released

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The California Air Resources Board (CARB) released the second version of the AB 32 Scoping Plan Update (SPU) on February 10, 2014. The original scoping plan adopted in 2008 included strategies to meet the 2020 goal of greenhouse gas emissions at no greater than 1990 levels.

The new SPU charts a path for emission reductions between 2020 and 2050. To reach the desired goal in 2050, the 1 percent per year reduction between 2000 and 2020 must accelerate to 5 percent per year between 2020 and 2050. CARB is expected to support the development and adoption of a 2030 target to support that goal.

The 2050 goal proposed by CARB – 80 percent below 1990 levels – is the global emission level that, according to the United Nations International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), must be achieved to stabilize the climate. The 2050 target was mentioned in Gov. Schwarzenegger’s Executive Order S-3-05, but it was never officially given the force of a law or regulation by the state. 

The SPU current recommendation for California directly hinges on international targets previously established by the IPCC, as well as recent studies and reports generated for CARB by other California agencies. Though the European Union, the United Kingdom and Germany have comparable 2030 goals, recent news reports reveal these countries are rethinking the costs and economic impacts of such aggressive climate change strategies. However, CARB continues to maintain that the 2050 target for California can be met with currently existing technologies, and that the state’s economic and environmental sustainability depend on achieving the goal.

The key recommendations in the SPU are aimed at moving California as close as possible to a "zero emission" result. Some of the recommendations cite zero net emissions for energy use in new residential and commercial buildings, renewable electric generation, carbon capture and storage for the remaining emissions from electric generation and industrial use of natural gas, electrification of the passenger car fleet, near zero emission trucks and goods movement systems, and community planning to reduce vehicle miles traveled. For the state’s agricultural and food processing industries, this will mean an increased effort to eliminate or sequester agricultural and landfill emissions, increased water conservation, as well as recycling.

Additionally, the SPU includes a proposal that by 2017 CARB would develop a plan for a post-2020 cap-and-trade program, including cost containment, to provide market certainty and address a mid-term emissions target.

Article written by John Larrea, Government Affairs Director, California League of Food Processors

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