Together, SLCPs represent about 12% of California’s total annual greenhouse gas emissions inventory.

Science tells us that making cuts in emissions of these powerful climate pollutants will reduce the near-term impacts of climate change as we phase down fossil fuel carbon dioxide emissions. Actions to reduce emissions of short-lived climate pollutants also improve air quality and reduce related health risks, hospitalizations, and medical expenses

—CARB Chair Mary D. Nichols

Governor Edmund G. Brown emphasized the need for addressing super pollutants by making their reduction over the next decade one of the Five Pillars of the State’s 2030 climate program development. Governor Brown is also actively supporting implementation of the draft Strategy by including $215 million in his proposed 2016-2017 budget to support a range of immediate actions.

This year, Senator Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens) introduced the Short-Lived Climate Pollutant Reduction Act of 2016 (Senate Bill 1383), which would codify the targets identified in this Proposed Strategy: reducing human-caused black carbon emissions by 50%, and methane and HFCs 40% below current levels by 2030.

This would cut greenhouse gas emissions by 94 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MMTCO₂e) annually under the approach that measures the impact of these super pollutants over a 20-year span. That is roughly the equivalent of the greenhouse gases associated with all the electricity (both in-state and imported) used in California in 2013.

Methane. Methane is the most abundant of the short-lived climate pollutants in California. Nearly 60% of California’s methane emissions are produced by agricultural activities, primarily at dairy farms. California is the nation’s largest dairy state, home to 20% of US milk production; milk is the state’s leading agricultural commodity. In 2014, California’s dairy industry generated a record $9.4 billion—as much as the state’s almond, walnut, and pistachio industries combined.

The Strategy calls for cutting manure methane emissions from dairies by 75% by 2030, which would reduce overall methane emissions from California’s dairy industry (including enteric fermentation emissions from cows) by more than 40%.

To meet these goals, following approval of the final Strategy, CARB will open a collaborative rulemaking process to address dairy manure emissions.

In addition, the Proposed Strategy also sets a goal to reduce enteric fermentation emissions from the dairy industry by 25% in 2030. The coordinated approach of incentives and regulation will aim to develop a competitive, low-carbon dairy industry in California, cutting overall methane emissions by more than 26 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2030, a 50 percent reduction of dairy methane emissions.

The Strategy also calls for reducing methane emissions by cutting the flow of organic waste into landfills and putting it to beneficial use through food recovery and rescue programs or by creating compost or renewable energy and fuel.

Working together, CalRecycle and CARB will have a regulation in place by 2018 to effectively eliminate disposal of organics in landfills by 2025.

The Proposed Strategy also calls for effectively implementing regulations currently under development at CARB and the CPUC to cut methane emissions by 45% from oil and gas exploration, extraction, pipeline and storage facilities by 2025.

Black Carbon. California has already reduced black carbon emissions by more than 90% in the last 50 years, primarily through the state’s stringent diesel regulations. The Proposed Strategy highlights additional state efforts such as working with local air districts to reduce black carbon from home woodstoves to achieve an additional 3 million metric tons of reductions by 2030. In his proposed 2016-2017 budget, Governor Brown included $40 million to incentivize clean woodstoves.

The Strategy also notes the need for further efforts to reduce black carbon from wildfires in the state’s forests, including $140 million for CAL FIRE in the Governor’s budget to support forest health and resiliency programs, approaches to foster increased private investment in forest management, and to convert larger amounts of wood waste into biofuel.

Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). The Proposed Strategy acknowledges that the most effective way to achieve significant reductions in HFC emissions is a global phase-down of their use under the Montreal Protocol. If a global agreement to do so is not reached, California will consider developing its own phasedown, as Europe has done and other countries are considering.

For short-term, Governor Brown’s proposed budget includes $20 million for incentives to replace high-GWP HFCs with more climate friendly alternatives. CARB will also develop bans on the use of high GWP refrigerants in sectors and applications where lower-GWP alternates are feasible and readily available.

Next Steps. CARB will host workshops to discuss the Proposed Strategy prior to its May 19 Board hearing when staff will present the Proposed Strategy as an informational item.

A final Reduction Strategy, including comments received on the environmental analysis, will be voted on by the Board in the fall.