California Green Innovation Index released Thursday
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The 15th annual California Green Innovation Index report was issued Thursday and currently, California is not on track to meet its emissions rate goals established by SB 32 in 2016.
The 2023 edition of the emissions report was prepared by Beacon Economics, an independent economic research and consulting firm, and also has an interactive website divided into broad sections including transportation and energy efficiency.
A key finding from the report is that California is no longer on pace to meet emissions reduction goals revised in 2016 to be 40% lower than emissions in 1990 by 2030.
The graph below shows the original emissions target established by Assembly Bill 32 (AB 32) of 2006 to match emissions from 1990 (the highest green line), the even lower emissions goals established through Senate Bill 32 (SB 32) in 2016 (the orange line), as well as emissions reductions projected into the future.
The chart above also shows the sharp reduction in emissions from 2019 to 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the 3.4 percent rise in emissions from 2020 to 2021.
To meet the SB 32 emissions standards by 2030, California would need to reduce emissions by 4.4 percent annually explain the report.
Emissions fell at an average annual rate of 1.6 percent between 2016 and 2021 shared the report.
The report also showed that while the share of renewable energy sources grew by 2.2 percent in 2022, the largest increase since 2017 to 2018.
In order to meet the state's goal of having 50 percent of generated energy from RPS-eligible renewable sources by 2026, the state would need to grow sourcing from renewables by at least 8.7 percent annually detail the report.
A critical aspect of energy generation is also energy storage, and the report explains that between 2020 and 2021, utility-scale lithium-ion battery storage more than quadrupled and energy storage projects expanded into 11 counties across California.
The transportation sector is the largest emissions source in California, constituting 38.2 percent of all emissions in 2021 and both the total number of vehicles registered as well as the vehicle miles traveled were higher than the previous year detail the report.
According to the report, after three consecutive years of emissions reductions from the transportation sector, emissions increased by 7.4 percent between 2020 to 2021 as COVID-19 travel restrictions were lifted.
California did meet its 2025 goal of 1.5 million zero-emission vehicles (ZEV) two years early and now has 40 percent of all ZEV sales in the country explained the report.
For more information about the 15th annual Green Innovation Index, visit here.
