Air Board Adopts 2022 Climate Change Scoping Plan

The California Air Resources Board adopted California’s 2022 Climate Change Scoping Plan in December. The Scoping Plan is California’s blueprint for achieving its climate goals. The 2022 Plan includes several new areas of focus, including a strategy to achieve carbon neutrality, how to reduce carbon emissions and increase sequestration on natural and working lands, carbon dioxide removal strategies, hydrogen, and zero-emission vehicles.

The Scoping Plan highlights the importance of bioenergy to address climate change and recommends:

• Increasing the use of biomass waste for conventional and advanced biofuels
• Increasing methane capture from landfills and dairies and recognizing the public health benefits of reducing methane emissions
• Using biomethane and hydrogen to replace fossil fuels in buildings, heavy duty vehicles, and hard to electrify end uses such as manufacturing and industrial uses
• Increasing the production of firm power (available when needed) to provide electricity reliability
• Highlighting the role that wastewater treatment plants can play in digesting food waste