Golden State Today

California has announced a groundbreaking initiative that will utilize millions of acres of land to combat the climate crisis. The state is embarking on this ambitious endeavor by setting 81 targets for nature-based solutions, marking a significant step in its commitment to environmental sustainability.

Governor Gavin Newsom expressed the importance of these targets, stating, "We’re setting aggressive and ambitious new targets to use California’s lands to fight the climate crisis. This scale of action is unprecedented, and yet another example of California punching above its weight. From restoring and conserving lands to greening our urban spaces and treating more acres to prevent wildfires, we’re protecting nature and allowing it to work for our communities."

The targets unveiled by the state aim to achieve various goals by 2045, including managing 33.5 million acres to reduce wildfire risk, conserving 7.6 million acres with protections, and planting 4.2 million trees to enhance carbon sequestration and community resilience.

California's decision to focus on nature-based solutions is driven by the need to address the imbalance in greenhouse gas emissions produced and absorbed by the state's lands. The 2022 Scoping Plan highlighted that California's lands currently emit more carbon than they absorb, attributing this shift to historic land use decisions and the impacts of climate change.

Through these targets, California aims to steer its lands towards becoming carbon-neutral by 2045, with a specific goal of limiting additional carbon stock losses from lands to no more than 4% below 2014 levels by that time.

This comprehensive approach underscores California's commitment to combatting climate change and serves as a model for other regions looking to leverage nature-based solutions in the fight against environmental degradation.