The 2019 Annual Report from California Climate Investments was recently released providing details about how cap-and-trade auction proceeds are being used to reduce overall emission levels in the state. The latest report highlights important programs that are helping to address climate change and are improving local economies and overall public health, particularly in disadvantaged communities.
Investments totaled $1.4 billion in 2018, nearly doubling the $720 million of funding spent in 2017. Some of the cumulative outcomes of the program thus far include the preservation or restoration of more than 500,000 acres of land. More than 343,000 individual projects have been implemented as part of the program and more than 50,000 trees have been planted in urban areas.
California Climate Investments programs help to expand the impact of their appropriations through encouraging applicants to secure additional financial support from federal, state, local, and private sources. Several initiatives that receive funding through the investments program address emission levels specifically within the agricultural industry.
The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) alone made close to $106 million in funding available through the Healthy Soils Program, Dairy Digester Research and Development Program and the Alternative Manure Management Program. Since the cap-and-trade funds have been made available, CDFA has distributed $340 million of the more than $3.4 billion that has been made available to eligible projects.
Other programs that have benefitted from the investment program include the provision of agricultural worker vanpools and agricultural replacement measures administered by the California Air Resources Board. Those programs combined to receive nearly $20 million in funding in 2018. The Strategic Growth Council’s Sustainable Agricultural Lands Conservation Program and the Renewable Energy for Agriculture Program from the California Energy Commission are other such initiatives being supported through California Climate Investments.
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