In an unprecedented move, the state of California has unveiled a comprehensive plan to harness the power of nature in combating the climate crisis. Governor Gavin Newsom’s California Climate Commitment has set 81 targets for nature-based solutions, aiming to strategically manage more than half of the state’s land to absorb carbon emissions and achieve carbon neutrality by 2045.
The targets, among the most comprehensive in the world, focus on various aspects of land management, including wildfire risk reduction, forest management for biodiversity protection, conservation, and the promotion of healthy soils in croplands. The plan also calls for the planting of 4.2 million trees to protect communities from the effects of climate change, remove carbon, and increase access to nature where it is needed most.
Governor Newsom emphasized the scale and ambition of the state’s action, 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.”
