Bill Text: CA AB2441 | 2019-2020 | Regular Session | Introduced

California Assembly Bill 2441 (Prior Session Legislation)

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

Bill Title: Climate change: Safeguarding California Plan: Extreme Heat and Community Resilience Program.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2020-05-05 - Re-referred to Com. on NAT. RES. [AB2441 Detail]

Download: California-2019-AB2441-Introduced.html

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2019–2020 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill

No. 2441

Introduced by Assembly Member Luz Rivas

February 19, 2020

An act to amend Section 71154 of the Public Resources Code, relating to climate change.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

AB 2441, as introduced, Luz Rivas. Climate change: Safeguarding California Plan.

Existing law requires the Natural Resources Agency every 3 years to update the Safeguarding California Plan, the state’s climate adaptation strategy. As part of the update, existing law requires the agency to coordinate with other state agencies to identify a lead agency or group of agencies to lead adaptation efforts in each sector. Existing law requires state agencies to work to maximize specified objectives.

This bill would include, as objectives to be maximized, building resilient communities by developing projects that incorporate, to the maximum extent feasible, cool surface materials and investing in communities to develop community-specific climate resilience plans and to establish community resilience centers to mitigate impacts of local climate risks.

Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: NO

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.

Section 71154 of the Public Resources Code is amended to read:

71154.

To address the vulnerabilities identified in the plan, state agencies shall work to maximize, where applicable and feasible, all of the following objectives:

(a) Educating the public about the consequences of climate change, such as sea-level rise, extreme heat and weather events, the urban heat island effect, habitat loss, wildfire, drought, threats to infrastructure and agriculture, worsening air and water quality, and public health impacts.

(b) Ensuring there is a continued repository for scientific data on climate change and climate adaptation in the state in order to facilitate educated state and local policy decisions and to help identify primary risks from climate change to residents, property, communities, and natural systems across the state.

(c) (1) Promoting the use of the plan to inform planning decisions and ensure that state investments consider climate change impacts, as well as promote the use of natural systems and natural infrastructure, when developing physical infrastructure to address adaptation.

(2) When developing infrastructure to address adaptation, where feasible, a project alternative should be developed that utilizes existing natural features and ecosystem processes or the restoration of natural features and ecosystem processes to meet the project’s goals.

(3) For purposes of this subdivision, “natural infrastructure” means using natural ecological systems or processes to reduce vulnerability to climate change related hazards, or other related climate change effects, while increasing the long-term adaptive capacity of coastal and inland areas by perpetuating or restoring ecosystem services. This includes, but is not limited to, the conservation, preservation, or sustainable management of any form of aquatic or terrestrial vegetated open space, such as beaches, dunes, tidal marshes, reefs, seagrass, parks, rain gardens, and urban tree canopies. It also includes systems and practices that use or mimic natural processes, such as permeable pavements, bioswales, and other engineered systems, such as levees that are combined with restored natural systems, to provide clean water, conserve ecosystem values and functions, and provide a wide array of benefits to people and wildlife.

(d) Encouraging regional collaborative planning efforts to address regional climate change impacts and adaptation strategies.

(e) Promoting drought resiliency through an integrated water supply, delivery, and capture system that is coordinated and that can be resilient to a multiyear drought scenario while protecting water quality and public health. Establishing both drought preparation programs, which will help create sustainable water systems in the future, and immediate drought response programs, which will reduce water demand or increase supply within one to five years of any declared drought.

(f) Building resilient communities by developing urban greening projects that reduce air pollution and heat reflection in urban areas and create livable, sustainable communities in urban cores to promote infill development and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

(g) Building resilient communities by developing projects, including, but not limited to, paving and roofing projects that incorporate, to the maximum extent feasible, cool surface materials that reduce heat island effects, reflective heat and public heat exposure, reduce energy consumption, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and increase adaptability to climate change.
(h) Investing in communities to develop community-specific climate resilience plans and to construct new facilities and retrofit existing facilities that will serve as community resilience centers to mitigate the impacts of local climate risks. Community resilience centers may include, but are not limited to, hydration stations, cooling centers, clean air centers, and community evacuation and emergency response centers.
~~(g)~~

(i) Protecting and enhancing habitat, species strongholds, and wildlife corridors that are critical to the preservation of species that are at risk from the consequences of climate change.

~~(h)~~

(j) Promoting actions to ensure healthy soils and sustainable agriculture; inform reliable transportation planning; improve emergency management response across sectors; ensure sufficient, reliable, and safe energy; improve capacity to reduce and respond to public health threats; address the impacts of climate change on disadvantaged communities; and protect cultural resources from the impacts of climate change.