CRCRC, in partnership with ClimatePlan and Civic Thread, facilitated an intensive and inclusive process to coordinate our region's application to SGC's Regional Climate Collaboratives grant program. We're excited to share that our pre-proposal has been submitted and we extend our sincere thanks to the almost 100 diverse community leaders and stakeholders who engaged in this effort! To learn more and get involved, please contact John Vandervort at jvandervort@civicwell.org.

The full program for the 13th Annual CCEC Forum is available now! View the impressive lineup of speakers from sectors and industries across California and register today! This forum will take place September 21st and 22nd in San Diego, California. Find more information and register here.

CRCRC Building Decarbonization Working Groups

CRCRC will be relaunching its Building Decarbonization Working Group later this month! This working group will focus on the equitable dispersal of information and resources pertaining to building decarbonization and electrification throughout the Capital Region.

These sessions will provide an opportunity for attendees to coordinate and collaborate with members of other organizations on upcoming projects and opportunities around current building decarbonization efforts.

If you are interested in joining 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!

In this listening session, ICARP staff will convene a listening session to gather feedback on regional climate resilience planning and project implementation needs in California and inform stakeholders and prospective applicants of program details. The RRGP will help fill local, regional, and tribal needs by providing communities the funding needed to identify climate resilience priorities, build capacity, and implement projects in response to the greatest climate risks in identified regions.

This training, hosted by the Institute for Local Government, will help attendees gain useful listening and speaking skills to help deal with disagreeing constituents & colleagues. Attendees will learn how to manage & defuse some of the tense & frustrating interactions often experienced in local government. This workshop is interactive, nonpartisan, and appropriate for both local government elected or appointed officials & staff.

Understanding risk is a key component for initiatives focused on helping communities prepare for and respond to weather and climate hazards. This interactive webinar introduces participants to seven best practices, numerous techniques, and examples for communicating about coastal hazards. Whether beginning a new effort or trying to keep people motivated to better prepare for future hazards, applying risk communication principles will lead to more effective results. Please note that this training focuses on improving risk communication skills for coastal hazards planning and preparedness, not crisis communication.

On July 24th, authorities issued an excessive heat watch for the U.S. Pacific Northwest region as potential record-breaking temperatures were forecast to settle in and linger into the following weekend. Temperatures could break daily records in Seattle, Portland and areas of Northern California, potentially reaching their highest levels since last year’s deadly heat wave that killed hundreds of people across the Pacific Northwest. Read this full article here.

A major heat wave settling over the Pacific Northwest is expected to bring several days of potentially record-breaking triple-digit temperatures, echoing a deadly heat wave that tormented the region last summer. Abnormal temperatures stretched from British Columbia to parts of Northern California, according to Richard Otto, a National Weather Service meteorologist who described the heat as “dangerous.” Heat warnings and advisories have been issued for the entire region, covering about 13 million people. Read this full article here.

To better understand the impacts of drought and wildfire activity in an urban landscape, Cal State Fullerton geology researchers are developing the first-ever study to reconstruct the fire history for Chino Hills State Park. With California experiencing prolonged dry conditions for the third consecutive year, the parched, hot and windy weather, combined with dried out and flammable vegetation, increases the probability of large-scale wildfires, said paleoclimatologist Matthew E. Kirby. Read this full article here.

The outlook for California’s drought is grim. The first five months of the year have been the driest on record. Snowpack in the mountains, at its usual April 1 peak, was the smallest it’s been in seven years. Reservoirs are hovering near historic lows for the season, including Lake Shasta, the state’s largest. But there's one, albeit small, bright spot: spring runoff. Read this full article here.

Firefighters continue to make progress against a huge California forest fire that forced evacuations for thousands of people and destroyed 41 homes and other buildings near Yosemite National Park, officials said Tuesday, July 26th. After minimal growth Monday, July 25th, the blaze had consumed more than 28 square miles (72 square km) of forest land, with 26% containment on Tuesday, Cal Fire said. The cause is under investigation. Read this full article here.

This post is regularly updated with the latest information on these fires as it is made available. As of sending out this newsletter, the latest is as follows:

Officials were able to reopen Highway 140 to Yosemite on Tuesday. Although some additional evacuation orders were lifted Wednesday, many remain in place. An evacuation map is available here.

The full article, as well as additional resources and information are available here.

The U.S. Forest Service announced July 21st that it's taking emergency action to save giant sequoias by speeding up projects that could start within weeks to clear underbrush to protect the world's largest trees from the increasing threat of wildfires.

The move to bypass some environmental review could cut years off the normal approval process required to cut smaller trees in national forests and use intentionally lit low-intensity fires to reduce dense brush that has helped fuel raging wildfires that have killed up to 20% of all large sequoias over the past two years. Read the full article here.

As of July 1, Sacramento residents are required to use their green bins to separate organic waste from their garbage. The recycling program is part of a statewide effort from Senate Bill 1383 signed by Gov. Jerry Brown in 2016. Under the law, residents must separate organics from their garbage and put food scraps, food-soiled paper and yard trimmings in the yard waste bin, which in most jurisdictions is in a green-colored bin. Read this full article here.

It’s no surprise summers are getting hotter, but how hot will it be in a few decades? A new climate tool projects Sacramento could be over 90 degrees for a third of the year and have nearly 50 days over 100 degrees. A new heat index tool shows it will only get warmer for Sacramento and the region. Read this full article here.

July 22nd, Governor Gavin Newsom pushed California to move faster to reach its climate goals, setting ambitious new targets for renewable energy, clean buildings, carbon removal, and clean fuels in the transportation sector. The Governor’s accelerated climate plan reinforces California’s leadership in addressing climate change, and will move the state faster toward carbon neutrality. In a letter to the Chair of the California Air Resources Board (CARB), Governor Newsom called for the state to ensure that the 2022 Climate Change Scoping Plan provides a path to achieve both the 2030 climate goal and state carbon neutrality no later than 2045, requesting that the final plan incorporate new efforts to advance offshore wind, clean fuels, climate-friendly homes, carbon removal and addressing methane leaks. Read this full article here.

Under state law, every Californian has the right to safe, clean, affordable and accessible water — but a blistering audit released July 26th shows just how far the state is from turning that promise into reality. As CalMatters water reporter Rachel Becker and I write, Acting State Auditor Michael Tilden slammed regulators at the State Water Resources Control Board for what he characterized as their “lack of urgency to provide needed assistance to failing water systems,” even as the state funnels hundreds of millions of dollars into drinking water projects. More information here.

You’ve almost certainly already heard the news; if not, my colleague David G. Savage wrote about the case. In a 6-3 decision, the court ruled the Environmental Protection Agency lacked authority for a broad Obama-era plan to slash planet-warming pollution, handing a victory to West Virginia and 17 other fossil-fuel-friendly states that sued to block the regulation. The odds of Congress passing sweeping climate legislation are not high. But even as global warming worsens wildfires, water shortages and heat storms, the Supreme Court ruling is far from “game over” for climate. Read this full article here.

President Joe Biden recently announced new executive steps to combat climate change, but fell short of issuing a climate-emergency declaration as some Democrats have called for amid stalled negotiations over major environmental legislation in Washington. “Since Congress is not acting as it should ... this is an emergency and I will look at it that way,” Biden said. “As president, I’ll use my executive powers to combat the climate crisis in the absence of executive action.” Find more information here.

Globally, June 2022 was the sixth-warmest June in the 143-year NOAA record. The year-to-date (January-June) global surface temperature was also the sixth warmest on record. According to NCEI’s Global Annual Temperature Outlook, there is a greater than 99% chance that 2022 will rank among the 10-warmest years on record but only an 11% chance that it will rank among the top five. Read this full article here.

During the United Nations (UN) Ocean Conference held in Lisbon, Portugal this week, the Biden-Harris Administration announced a number of steps the Administration is taking to work with global partners to combat the climate crisis and boost the ocean economy. These new actions included: the acceleration of efforts both across the U.S. Government and internationally to combat illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing and associated labor abuses; support for aquatic and blue foods contributions to food security; the announcement of Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding for ocean and coastal resilience, habitat restoration, and marine debris prevention; leadership on the development of an action plan to conserve, restore, and sustainably manage global coral reef ecosystems; and the release of a national Ocean Policy Committee Action Plan; among others. Read this 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.