The California Court of Appeal affirmed a trial court judgment barring San Diego County from using a 2016 guidance document on climate change analysis in California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) reviews. The appellate court found that challenges to the guidance were ripe and further found that the guidance violated CEQA because the guidance’s “Efficiency Metric” established a threshold of significance that should have been adopted by ordinance, resolution, rule, or regulation and developed through a public review process. The appellate court also found that the County did not provide substantial evidence to support the guidance’s reliance on statewide data. In addition, the Court of Appeal found that the issuance of the guidance constituted piecemeal environmental review at odds with an earlier decision by the appellate court concluding that the County’s Climate Action Plan (CAP) and thresholds of significance based on the CAP were a single project subject to environmental review. Therefore, despite the County’s contention that development of a CAP and thresholds of significance were underway and on schedule, the appellate court found that the 2016 guidance violated its earlier directive.

Challenge to county’s approval of greenhouse gas review standards and climate action plan.

Golden Door Properties, LLC v. County of San Diego

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California Appellate Court Affirmed Trial Court Judgment Barring Use of San Diego County Climate Change Guidance

Filed

United States of America

California

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An aim to achieve a quantifiable outcome within a given time-frame, set by an institution such as a national government.

Policy instruments are techniques or tools used by governing authorities to promote certain policies in order to achieve predetermined goals. Put simply, instruments are how a government tries to achieve its goals, with this taxonomy being focused on national policy instruments.

Risk is the potential for adverse consequences resulting from the dynamic interplay between (climate-related) hazards, exposure, and vulnerability of affected human or ecological systems.

Groups  of people who are adversely affected by climate change or the response to it

A set of principles, processes, and practices that build economic and political power to shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy.

Justice is the ethical and political framework that addresses fairness, including issues of responsibility, rights, and structural inequity.

Renewable energy means all forms of energy produced from renewable sources in a sustainable manner.

Fossil fuel is a generic term for non-renewable energy sources such as coal, fossil gas, and oil (including crude oil, and petroleum products), that can be used for electricity and heat generation. Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons formed from pressurised and heated organic material buried over millions of years.

Molecules in the atmosphere that play a key role in the greenhouse effect by trapping heat radiating from Earth’s surface.

Area of the economy in which actors engage in identical or related activities.

In human systems, the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate change and its effects, in order to moderate harm, increase resilience or exploit beneficial opportunities. In natural systems, the process of adjustment to actual climate change and its effects; human intervention may facilitate adjustment to expected climate change and its effects.

The management and allocation of funds, assets and investments to meet various objectives

A target to reduce the prevalence of a greenhouse gas over a specific time frame

The release of heat-trapping gases, primarily from human activities such as burning fossil fuels, agriculture and industry.

Activities that involve planning, designing and building infrastructure, residential, and commercial structures.

This sector involves activities to move goods and people, alongside the storage of products.

Activities involving the management, development, and sale of property assets.

Slow onset events evolve gradually from incremental changes over many years or from increased frequency or intensity of recurring events. As defined in the Cancun Adaptation Framework (2010), slow onset events include risks and impacts from rising temperatures, desertification, biodiversity loss, land and forest degradation, glacial retreat, ocean acidification, sea level rise, and salinization.

California Appellate Court Affirmed Trial Court Judgment Barring Use of San Diego County Climate Change Guidance

Target

Risk

Greenhouse gas

Economic sector