Greenhouse gas emissions include carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, sulfur hexafluoride, hydrofluorocarbons, and perfluorocarbons.
[3] AB-32 required California to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 and SB-32 continues that timeline to reach the targets set in Executive Order B-30-15.
[4] The global community recognized the climate trends most recently at the 21st yearly session of the Conference of Parties (COP 21) in Paris, where a universal commitment to reduce average "global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius and to drive efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels".
[6] Prior to the Paris agreements, which have not domestically been ratified by a two-thirds Senate vote, the US did not have any binding national GHG reduction targets.
The 1990 emissions limit was initially set at 427 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MMTCO2e), but was revised in 2014 to 431 MMTCO2e based on updated scientific reporting.
AB-197 also requires that CARB "protect the state's most impacted and disadvantaged communities … [and] consider the social costs of the emissions of greenhouse gases" in preparing plans to meet GHG reduction goals.
[9] EO S-3-05 was signed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in June 2005 that set an executive greenhouse gas emissions target for 2050 at 80% below 1990 levels.
This bill gives CARB the authority to adopt regulations in order to achieve the maximum technology feasible to be the most cost-efficient way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
They are also required to meet these goals in such a way that benefits the state's most disadvantaged communities as they are "disproportionately impacted" by the effects of climate change, such as drought and flooding.
[4] The California Cap-and-Trade program was created by CARB as a market mechanism to reach GHG emission reduction targets established in AB-32.
There currently is a Cap-and-Trade program in California, though it is not directly required under SB-32, which simply establishes a clear emissions reduction goal.
Additionally, as part of AB-197, reports of emissions inventories for GHGs, criteria pollutants, and toxic air contaminants are required to be made public and updated at least once a year.