Building Livable Communities

Livable Communities Meet the Global Warming Challenge
The Seventeenth Annual Conference for Local Elected Officials

Dates: March 13-16, 2008, Yosemite National Park

Intro | Agenda | Speakers | Resources

Resources

California Takes Leadership

• California Climate Change Portal
  Background information and new releases from the Governor on Climate Change & Greenhouse Gas emissions in addition to resources and Climate Change proceedings from members of the governor’s Climate Action Team.
• Assembly Bill 32 (PDF 128KB)
  The bill that required the state board to adopt a statewide greenhouse gas emissions limit equivalent to the statewide greenhouse gas emissions levels in 1990 to be achieved by 2020.
• Executive Order S-3-05
  The Executive Order establishing the world's first Low Carbon Standard for transportation fuels signed by Governor Schwarzenegger.
• California Energy Commission (CEC)
  The Energy Commission has an active role in climate change issues including:  AB 32 Implementation, Greenhouse Gases Emission Standards Rulemaking, the 2006 Update to the Greenhouse Gas Inventory, CEC Climate Change Advisory Committee, California Climate Action Registry Rulemaking Proceeding, and Research into Climate Change through the Public Interest Energy Research Program and the California Climate Change Center.
• Caltrans Climate Action Plan
  The Climate Action Program at the California Department of Transportation (Department) is an interdisciplinary effort intended to promote and facilitate greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction measures and greening within the Department. The Climate Action Program serves as a resource for technical assistance, training, information exchange, and partnership-building opportunities.
• 2007 Integrated Energy Policy Report
  The California Energy Commission adopts an Integrated Energy Policy Report (IEPR) every two years and an update every other year.  This web section is for the 2007 Integrated Energy Policy Report, which was adopted by the Energy Commission on December 5, 2007.
• California Air Resources Board Portal-Scoping Plan Series
  The Scoping Plan contains the main strategies California will use to reduce the greenhouse gases (GHG) that cause climate change. The Plan, when it is completed, will have a range of GHG reduction actions, which can include direct regulations, alternative compliance mechanisms, monetary and non-monetary incentives, voluntary actions, and market-based mechanisms such as a cap-and-trade system.

CEQA

• CAPCOA White Paper
  The CA Association of Air Pollution Control Officers’ website offers resources including their recent White Paper titled "CEQA and Climate Change."
• California Attorney General's Website
  The CA Attorney General’s Global Warming site which offers resources including: information on CEQA and NEPA and speeches/testimony from the Attorney General
• EDAW
  A design firm that “welcomes projects that offer complex and creative challenges; that combine a local sense of place with a global respect for sustainability; that deliver valuable, long-term benefits for a wide range of community interests; and that improve the relationship between people and their environment.”
• Jones and Stokes White Paper
  Jones & Stokes is a multidisciplinary environmental consulting firm that specializes in the environmental analysis required under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The Jones & Stokes Climate Change Focus Group has created an industry whitepaper to demonstrate the framework by which one can incorporate climate change into CEQA/NEPA documents.

Loocal Government Resources

• The Climate Registry The Climate Registry is a collaboration between states, provinces and tribes aimed at developing and managing a common greenhouse gas emissions reporting system with high integrity that is capable of supporting various greenhouse gas emission reporting and reduction policies for its member states and tribes and reporting entities.
• California Climate Registry A non-profit public/private partnership that serves as a voluntary greenhouse gas (GHG) registry to protect, encourage, and promote early actions to reduce GHG emissions.
• ICLEI — Local Governments for Sustainability ICLEI provides information, delivers training, organizes conferences, facilitates networking and city-to-city exchanges, carries out research and pilot projects, and offers technical services and consultancy. ICLEI also provides software and tools to help local governments achieve their sustainable development goals.
• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Provides decision-makers and others interested in climate change with an objective source of information about climate change. The IPCC’s role is to assess the latest scientific, technical and socio-economic literature produced worldwide relevant to the understanding of the risk of human-induced climate change, its observed and projected impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation.
• Pew Center on Global Climate Change The Pew Center on Global Climate Change brings together business leaders, policy makers, scientists, and other experts to bring a new approach to a complex and often controversial issue.
• U.S. Environmental Protecton Agency
  The U.S. EPA’s site offers resources on:  basic information, science, Greenhouse Gas emissions inventories/overview/projections, health and environmental effects, U.S. Climate Policy, climate economics.