THE NET-ZERO BLOG
Climate policy analysis and updates from Sacramento
How California can deliver another milestone year on climate despite a budget deficit
Despite strong progress in recent years, California still risks falling well short of its 2030 and 2045 climate goals. And now, as the state faces a projected $18 billion budget deficit, a key question relates to what climate action might look like in 2026. In this blog, we show there is no shortage of no- and low-cost policy reforms that could make for another milestone year of pragmatic climate action in California. We highlight nine opportunities focused on improving the efficiency of existing programs and processes as well as leveraging small amounts of funding to establish key standards that are essential to meeting the state's climate goals.
How can California pay for wildfire prevention at scale?
To reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire, California must invest billions of new dollars each year into key actions including forest thinning, prescribed fire, defensible space, home hardening and more. Yet for all of our ambition, a key question remains: where does the money come from? In this technical blog post, we analyze five potential state-controlled funding options. We find that while each option has potential in different settings, a new biomass economy producing high-value products from wood waste may be the only option capable of supporting forest treatments at scale.
Addressing California's wood waste crisis
California is facing an unprecedented crisis whereby millions of tons of wood waste from wildfire prevention efforts are being piled and burned or left to decay in forests, increasing the state’s emissions and undermining broader forest resilience goals. Despite some progress towards establishing a circular economy to collect and process the residues into low-carbon products, these efforts have not kept pace with the scale of the problem. In this blog we examine the potential for California to deploy a portfolio of next-generation biomass technologies, including wood products such as mass timber, clean fuels such as hydrogen and sustainable aviation fuel, and carbon dioxide removal.
Reflections on the inaugural California Biomass Workshop
Last week Conservation Strategy Group and the UC Davis Policy Institute for Energy, Environment and Economy co-hosted the inaugural California Biomass Workshop to address the key challenges and opportunities in delivering a sustainable bioeconomy to California. Over 200 attendees met in Sacramento for a deep dive on an issue that is critical to reaching our Scoping Plan goals while protecting California's natural and working lands. In this blog post we summarize the main takeaways from the day.
Inaugural California Biomass Workshop a key opportunity for progress
Workshop Announcement: Conservation Strategy Group and UC Davis Policy Institute for Energy, Environment and the Economy are co-hosting the California Biomass Workshop on January 31st, 2024 at the Citizen Hotel in Sacramento. The purpose of the workshop is to bring together a diversity of stakeholders from around the state to coordinate and advance solutions to address a major resource management challenge - the wood waste crisis.
Recommendations to solve California's biomass challenge
With its world-leading policies on electrification and clean power, California has made important progress towards achieving its climate goals. However, not all emissions are from the energy and industrial sectors. Land-based emissions, including from burning or decaying biomass, must also be addressed to achieve a carbon neutrality goal. In this blog post, we identify potential priority approaches for biomass utilization, including for durable wood products, advanced biofuels and biomass electricity, that can help California meet its climate goals.