An “Affordable Net-Zero” strategy: Read here for our analysis and proposed framework for cap-and-trade investments.
Special Projects
Our Special Projects workstream is focused on salient and cross-cutting California climate issues that are often short-term opportunities with major upside potential.
Our current focus area includes cap-and-trade reauthorization and the expenditure of Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund revenues.
Recent Analysis
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Analyzing the Governor's proposed climate actions in the May Revise budget
May 2025
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A clean energy infrastructure plan for the GGRF
April 2025
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Strengths and limitations of California's cap-and-trade program
March 2025
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Aligning GGRF with the 2022 Scoping Plan
September 2024
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Data analysis of cap-and-trade program investments
December 2023
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California advances toward climate goals: the $39 billion budget
September 2022
Our take
Cap-and-trade reauthorization
California’s cap-and-trade program generates roughly $7-8 billion per year, of which $2-3 billion is rebated to electricity customers in the form of the California Climate Credit while $4-5 billion is deposited into the state’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) to support the state’s climate goals. However, there is evidence that neither of these investment areas are performing as optimally as they could, with the California Climate Credit only providing roughly $10/month in relief to investor-owned utility customers and the multiple GGRF programs requiring thousands of dollars to reduce one ton of carbon emissions.
A review and potential reallocation of some portion of GGRF investments to ensure alignment with the state’s highest-priority affordability and climate goals is warranted.
For more information, contact Amanda DeMarco (amanda@netzerocalifornia.org) or Sam Uden (sam@netzerocalifornia.org).
