Twenty years after California's landmark climate law, the state is not on track to meet its targets

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Set us as preferred Dozens of California’s most influential lawmakers, environmentalists and policy experts gathered in Los Angeles this month to mark the 20th anniversary of the landmark Global Warming Solutions Act, which put the state on a science-driven path to address climate change.Two decades after the passage of the nation-leading bill, California is not on track to meet its future targets, new data show.When Assembly Bill 32 passed in 2006, it set in motion something never done before: a statewide effort to inventory and curb greenhouse gas emissions through legally mandated targets.

It paved the way for the creation of California’s signature carbon market program, cap-and-invest.It also mandated returning emissions to their 1990 levels by 2020 — a target California met six years ahead of schedule.Annual emissions in 1990 were about 431 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent.But the harder changes were always down the road, including the next target: cutting emissions to 40% below 1990 levels by 2030.

Climate & Environment Linking California and Washington state’s carbon markets will cut more pollution and increase revenue for key state programs, officials said.California is only about halfway there, with annual emissions down roughly 4% to 346 million metric tons in 2024, according to the state’s latest greenhouse gas emissions inventory, released in September.(Emissions data are published on a two-year time lag).From there, it must cut an additional 86 million metric tons of carbon by 2030.

At the current pace, that means California won’t hit the 2030 target until 2034, according to an analysis from the nonprofit Next 10, which publishes annual reports on the state’s progress.The 2045 goal — cutting emissions to 85% below 1990 levels — is even further off track.It will require ste...