Extreme heat is a serious challenge facing California⁠, with many cities set to experience Phoenix-like temperatures in the coming decades⁠. But we have solutions that can be implemented today to cool our communities, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and improve public health and equity. Join the Los Angeles Regional Collaborative for Climate Action & Sustainability (LARC) and the Capital Region Climate Readiness Collaborative (CRCRC) for a conversation about some of these extreme heat interventions in the Los Angeles and Capital Regions. This is the first of a two-part series⁠—the second webinar on May 16, 2022, will focus on social solutions and social infrastructure (including trees!) to support equity and community resilience. View the agenda here.

This event is open to the public! You do not need to be a member of LARC or CRCRC to attend and participate.

The Call for Session Proposals (CFSP) for the 13th Annual California Climate and Energy Forum has officially launched! We welcome you to submit a proposal by Wednesday, April 27th and help shape the 2022 forum!

The theme for the 13th Annual CCEC Forum is Accelerating Climate Action & Advancing Justice. The consequences of an extractive fossil fuel economy are here, but so are the solutions. As we work to implement climate and energy solutions, there are dual needs: an urgency to meet our goals and a need to do so in an inclusive, conscientious way without leaving anyone behind. So as we accelerate climate and energy action with new strategies and technologies, how can we create time for the tough and meaningful discussions we need to have? How do we ensure that solutions advance justice and include historically and presently disadvantaged communities? Through this forum, we are looking to engage local governments, state agencies, organizations, and any interested practitioners to facilitate sharing best practices, tools and ideas on how to approach our statewide and local goals effectively.

As a member of The Capital Region Climate Readiness Collaborative, all staff and affiliates of your organization are available to participate in, and benefit from, joining a working group!

CRCRC operates an Extreme Heat working group. These sessions provide an opportunity to coordinate and collaborate with members of other organizations on upcoming projects and opportunities surrounding the topic of Extreme Heat. More information on this group is available here.

If you are interested in joining or leading a working group please complete this interest form.

If you or anyone at your organization has updates you would like to have promoted through this newsletter, utilize this form to submit them to be included in this newsletter! This can include any updates, upcoming projects, or opportunities for collaboration that you would like to share with the broader CRCRC network!

This grant opportunity furthers the purposes of AB 32 (Nunez, 2006) and AB 2722 (Burke, 2016) by funding projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) through the development and implementation of neighborhood-level transformative climate community plans that include multiple coordinated GHG emissions reduction projects that provide local economic, environmental, and health benefits to disadvantaged communities.

View more information here.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as part of its Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program, is seeking applications proposing community-engaged research that will address the drivers and environmental impacts of energy transitions in underserved communities. For purposes of this competition and the evaluation of applications, “underserved communities” refers to populations sharing a particular characteristic, as well as geographic communities, that have been systematically denied a full opportunity to participate in aspects of economic, social, and civic life, including people of color, low income, rural, tribal, indigenous, and other populations that may be disproportionately impacted by environmental harms and risks.

View more information here.

Last year, the State of California allocated $3.7 billion for climate resilience: the largest investment ever made towards building regional and community resilience against climate impacts. Please take this survey to provide feedback to the California Resilience Partnership on how the grant programs supported by these funds can best advance your work in communities across the state.

This survey is intended for representatives of community-based organizations and municipalities, as well as for their partners, and should take you 10 minutes or less. Your response will be summarized in a California Resilience Partnership (CRP) research report that has the potential to influence State grant guidelines and increase accessibility. We welcome your questions, comments, and open dialogue. You can reach the CRP team directly at [email protected]. For additional information on this project, please visit the CRP webpage.

Take the survey here.

For more funding and grant opportunities please visit fundingresource.org/

Find more information and register for listening sessions here.

Every month, the Local Energy Resources Network (LERN) hosts virtual meetings to help local governments pursue their clean energy and climate goals. They’re a unique and interactive space for exchanging knowledge, resources, and timely opportunities.This month, CCEC will be joined by Kelly Delany and Jonathan Verhoef, a Program Analyst and Energy Efficiency Specialist (respectively) with the California Hub for Energy Efficiency Financing (CHEEF) at the California Alternative Energy and Advanced Transportation Financing Authority. They’ll discuss GoGreen Financing, and present several recent updates to CAEATFA’s suite of financing programs that better support the energy goals of local governments and publicly-owned or municipal utilities.

Find more information and join LERN here.

This event's agenda includes plenary speeches by scientists, lawmakers, and activists, as well as in-depth breakout sessions focused on phasing out fossil fuels, carbon sequestration, and community energy resilience. The Summit will be followed by a day of lobbying and advocacy that moves the state toward equitable, accelerated climate action. 

Register for this event here.

Join the California Strategic Growth Council for a public workshop on the California Transportation Assessment findings and policy recommendations. This workshop is a public space for SGC to answer questions and respond to comments about the AB 285 report findings and recommendations.

Register for this event here.

The Interruption Cost Estimate (ICE) Calculator is an electric reliability planning tool developed by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and Nexant, Inc. This tool is designed for electric reliability planners at utilities, government organizations, and other entities that are interested in estimating interruption costs and/or the benefits associated with reliability improvements in the United States. This is the first workshop focusing on “Economic & Equity Impacts of Large Disruptions”. This event will have presentations on two tools developed by LBNL: The Interruption Cost Estimator (ICE) calculator, and the Power Outage Economic Tool (POET).

Find more information on this event here.

This is the largest Earth Day celebration in the Sacramento region, and admission is free! Sacramento Earth Day is about building community and finding ways to help residents of the Greater Sacramento Region reduce our ecological footprint. This festival, hosted by ECOS, is a great opportunity to learn about methods to live more sustainably. Sacramento Earth Day is ECOS’ largest annual fundraiser, so consider becoming a sponsor of this landmark event, a volunteer recruiter, or a volunteer.

Find more information on this event here.

California is About to See How Bad this Drought Really is.

The annual measurements of snow levels serve as indicators of how much water will be available for the rest of the spring, summer and early fall, according to Climate Central, a group of scientists and journalists who research climate change and its effects on people. About half of the U.S.’s water supply — and up to 70% in mountain regions — is stored in snow, Climate Central added, meaning that if snowpack levels are low, the amount of water available for drinking, bathing, agriculture and so many other uses might be, too. Read the full article here.

March 21st, 2022 Governor Gavin Newsom ordered water agencies around the state to tighten water conservation rules, as the winter rainy season comes to a close with California heading into a third year of severe drought. The move is the most far-reaching statewide water restriction since 2016, during California’s last drought. Read the

full article here.

Warning signs are flashing red: California faces another scary year for extreme wildfires. More than 93 percent of the state is in severe or extreme drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. And a March 1 reading of the state's snowpack found it way below normal — just 63 percent of the average for that date. That's not all. California hillsides are turning brown with dead and dying grass — potential kindling for the next inferno. Taken together, it's a recipe for disaster. Read the full article here.

March 30th, the Governor’s Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force issued a Strategic Plan for Expanding the Use of Beneficial Fire to expand the use of prescribed fire and cultural burning to build forest and community resilience statewide – efforts critical to forest management and wildfire mitigation. By expanding the use of beneficial fire, the state can utilize smart burning tactics on brush and other fuels to help both prevent the start of fires and mitigate the spread of wildfires. Read the full article here.

A new study on the health effects of wildfire smoke makes some dire predictions for the Pacific Northwest and Northern California. September 9, 2020, was the day smoke from Northern California wildfires gave the Bay Area a Mars-like appearance. But now, according to a new study out of Princeton University, that could be the norm in the Pacific Northwest and Northern California during fire season in the coming decades. The study predicts the effects of climate change will make wildfires bigger and more frequent and air quality during those times could be three times worse by the end of the century. Read the full article here.

Erin Treadwell spoke with CapRadio about a yet-to-be fully implemented California law that requires all residents and businesses to separate food waste from other trash. Listen to the full interview here.

California climate, health, and community groups sent a letter to the U.S. Interior Department today urging it to force polluters to pay for the cleanup of tens of thousands of dangerous abandoned oil and gas wells in the state. Interior is preparing to grant up to $165 million to California to clean up aging oil and gas wells in the state. But California regulators have so far been reluctant to hold oil companies to their legal requirements to plug abandoned wells and restore the surface to its natural state. Read the full article here.

As California gas prices soar — reaching a per-gallon average of $5.90 on Friday — lawmakers are trying to rush to the rescue with pricey proposals to assist drivers. Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to give car owners $400 per car for up to two vehicles, at a cost of $9 billion. Yet at the same time, California is investing billions to pry people out of their gas-thirsty cars and trucks. Positioning itself as a global leader combating climate change, the state offers rebates to knock thousands off the price of a Chevy Bolt or Nissan Leaf. The governor pledged $10 billion to accelerate the transition to electric vehicles, and has even made a commitment to end the sale of all new gas powered cars in California by 2035. Read the full article here.

This issue of Boiling Point from the LA Times seeks to summarize all the climate- and environment-related bills that had been introduced in the California Legislature this year. This is the second installation of Boiling Point that does so. This issue covers 25 bills dealing with clean energy, the electric grid and climate-friendly transportation. Read the full article here. Part 1 can be found here.

'A Climate for Conflict' is a project Nichole Sobecki undertook with her reporting partner, Laura Heaton, that explores the relationship between the environment and security in Somalia, one of the countries that's been hardest hit by climate change. Sobecki says she feels a sense of responsibility to highlight one of the places that has contributed the least to global carbon dioxide emissions, and yet its environment is among the most severely impacted, in irreversible ways. Read the full article here.

The U.N. climate science panel publishes its final report in the current assessment cycle on Monday, and this time will focus on ways of curbing greenhouse gas emissions, although the consensual nature of the reports means it could steer away from the most dramatic warnings. Read the full article here.

The Capital Region Climate Readiness Collaborative is a membership based collaborative network designed to promote greater climate change resilience planning coordination in the six-county Sacramento Region. The purpose of this collaborative network is to create a forum where leaders from government, academia, environmental and community groups, the business community, and labor can come together to exchange information, identify vulnerabilities and data gaps, leverage resources, and advance comprehensive solutions in an effort to create stronger, sustainable, and economically viable communities in the Capital Region.

CRCRC is a program of CivicWell.