About the talk
The State of California passed landmark legislation known as the Global Warming Solutions Act (AB 32). AB32 also allows for the development of market mechanisms to implement GHG reductions and the California Air Resources Board has recently released its proposal for development of a regional cap and trade program. However, prior to adoption, the California Air Resources Board (ARB) must consider the potential for direct, indirect, and cumulative emission impacts from these mechanisms, including localized impacts in communities that are already adversely impacted by air pollution. AB32 is particularly unique among proposed cap and trade programs in that it also requires the California cap-and-trade program to be designed to prevent any increase in emissions of toxic air contaminants or criteria air pollutants as a result of trades (Health and Safety Code 38570(b)(1) and (2)) and provide for co-benefits to communities that have been already-impacted by criteria air pollutants and that a cap and trade program does not disproportionately impact low-income communities (Health and Safety Code 38562(b)(2)).
The release of a Draft Scoping Plan includes a recommendation to develop a California cap-and-trade program that would be linked to a broader regional market through the Western Climate Initiative.[1] The cap and trade program within the State's proposal has been stridently opposed by the environmental justice community, the same community that was instrumental in helping to achieve passage of AB32, the landmark bill. The environmental justice movement has brought forth a new dimension in the climate change debate regarding cap and trade - ultimately that cap and trade could result in favoring some communities with emission reductions while other communities experience increases; because many of the railyards, ports, refineries tend to be adjacent to poor, minority communities, and it is these communities that have historically been subject to higher rates exposure, moral and ethical questions arise as well as operational questions, as oncoming federal legislation on cap and trade becomes closer to reality. Can a cap-and-trade program be design to address potential environmental and public health impacts associated with criteria pollutants and air toxics in adversely impacted communities? Is it possible to devise practical economic and administrative tools that could be used in a cap-and-trade program to address these environmental and public health concerns?
I plan to provide an overview of California's approach to tackling climate change and the development of the cap and trade program and speak to the issues that have arisen over environmental justice concerns. I also will discuss our plans to encourage new thinking and solicit research and expertise on ways in which cap and trade can be designed to encourage reductions of both GHG emissions and associated health-based pollutants in communities that experience high levels of cumulative emissions, while promoting the market-based program's economic benefits as they could apply to these communities.
About Barbara Bamberger
Ms. Bamberger has over 20 years of experience in domestic and international environmental policy and social science research experience. Barbara's work has centered on the social and cultural effects of development and natural resource extraction policy. She currently works for the State of California Office of Climate Change, specifically working on the development of the State's cap and trade program, with a focus on environmental justice. Barbara worked as an Applied Social Scientist with EDAW-AECOM, acting as lead field scientist and project manager on multiple research studies in Alaska, including the social and cultural impacts of oil and gas development Alaska Native communities on the North Slope, Researching Technical Dialogue between North Slope communities and the U.S. Minerals Management Service, and social impact analysis of federal fisheries regulations. She has worked in forest certification conducted audits for three certification schemes (PEFC, FSC, and SFI), and has conducted extensive analysis on deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon and on climate change policy with the Woods Hole Research Center.
Barbara is the former Program Associate for the Yale Program on Forest Certification in 2003. Beginning, 1991, when Barbara was with the City of Chula Vista, she headed an effort to be part of a small group of cities internationally, in coordination with the US EPA and ICLEI, to develop the first group of local Climate Change Action Plans. Her experience ranges from local government, NGOs, research institutes, and as a private consultant. She has worked with communities in Brazil and Uganda.
Barbara started her career as a community organizer in a low-income neighborhood in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Barbara holds an MEM from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, an MA from Brandeis University's Heller School of Social Policy - Sustainable International Development program, and a BS in economics from the University of Wisconsin - Madison.
