California Floats More Aggressive Plan to Achieve Carbon Neutrality by 2045

November 23, 2022--Written by John Egan for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--California environmental regulators released a tougher climate action roadmap on November 16 that, they said, would enable the state to achieve economy-wide carbon neutrality by 2045. The proposed plan slashes greenhouse gas emissions 85% and oil usage 94%, chiefly through new regulations and building codes that prohibit gas use. Regulators also estimate the plan would create 4 million new jobs.

Under the final proposed 2022 Scoping Plan Update scenario developed by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) (Sacramento, California), the group said "impacts to economic and job growth would be negligible in both 2035 and 2045." However, the group also estimated that achieving the plan's targets would cost about $18 billion in 2035 and $27 billion in 2045.