Bill Text: CA SR34 | 2023-2024 | Regular Session | Enrolled
Bill Title: Relative to climate restoration.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Passed) 2023-07-03 - Read. Adopted. (Ayes 29. Noes 0. Page 1866.) [SR34 Detail]
Download: California-2023-SR34-Enrolled.html
|
Enrolled
July 05, 2023 |
|
Passed
IN
Senate
July 03, 2023 |
|
Amended
IN
Senate
June 08, 2023 |
CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE—
2023–2024 REGULAR SESSION
Senate Resolution
No. 34
| Introduced by Senator Cortese |
May 02, 2023 |
Relative to climate restoration.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SR 34, Cortese.
Digest Key
Bill Text
WHEREAS, Humanity has an obligation to future generations to restore and maintain a safe climate that ensures long-term survival; and
WHEREAS, The human species has never before lived with a sustained atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration above 300 parts per million (ppm); and
WHEREAS, Today’s atmospheric CO2 concentration is approximately 420 ppm, 40 percent higher than in preindustrial times, resulting in serious and worsening impacts on climate, agriculture, and business; and
WHEREAS, The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1992 stated that the ultimate objective of the convention was to achieve “stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system”; and
WHEREAS, At that time, the atmospheric CO2 concentration was 350 ppm, which is the maximum level theorized to sustain the ecosystems to which humanity is adapted; and
WHEREAS, “Climate restoration” refers to the climate change goal and associated actions to restore atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations to historic levels in which humans have survived long-term; and
WHEREAS, Restoring the atmospheric CO2 concentration to a safe level, below 300 ppm, will require removing approximately one trillion tons of legacy CO2 from the atmosphere; and
WHEREAS, Nature has removed roughly one trillion tons of CO2 from the atmosphere 10 times in the last 1,000,000 years, with two of nature’s major methods for removing geologic amounts of atmospheric CO2 being photosynthesis in the ocean and by forming limestone; and
WHEREAS, Scientists and technologists have developed and demonstrated methods, including ways to replicate and accelerate these natural processes, that have the potential to be implemented and scaled; and
WHEREAS, Climate justice requires climate restoration because low-income communities are the first and most impacted by climate change; and
WHEREAS, Climate restoration will benefit the people of the State of California by reducing losses and damage from wildfires, while producing positive effects on human and ecosystem health, industry, and jobs in agriculture and other sectors; now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the Senate of the State of California, That the Senate formally recognizes the obligation to future generations to restore a safe climate, and declares climate restoration, along with achieving net-zero and net-negative CO2 emissions, a climate policy priority; and be it further
Resolved, That the Senate calls on the State Air Resources Board to engage necessary federal entities as appropriate to urge the United States Ambassador to the United Nations to propose a climate treaty that would restore and stabilize GHG levels as our common climate goal; and be it further
Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate transmit copies of this resolution to the State Air Resources Board.
