The California Court of Appeal affirmed the denial of two petitions that challenged the environmental review and permitting for an arena for the National Basketball Association’s Golden State Warriors and associated development in San Francisco. Among the arguments rejected by the appellate court was the petitioners’ contention that the environmental review was inadequate due to its “exclusive reliance” on the project’s compliance with San Francisco’s greenhouse gas strategy to determine that the project would not have a significant effect on greenhouse gas emissions. The court said that guidelines issued pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) explicitly authorized reliance on performance-based standards such as the greenhouse gas strategy and that the environmental impact report was not required to quantify expected emissions and the amount by which those emissions would be reduced by implementation of the greenhouse gas strategy and mitigation measures. The court also noted that in Center for Biological Diversity v. Department of Fish & Wildlife, No. S217763 (2015), the California Supreme Court had “expressed approval for a methodology that uses consistency with greenhouse gas reduction plans as a significance criterion for project emissions under CEQA.” The appellate court said that, contrary to the petitioners’ argument, the Supreme Court had not held that quantification was necessary in every case.

Challenge to mixed-used development in San Francisco that included new arena for Golden State Warriors.


Mission Bay Alliance v. Office of Community Investment & Infrastructure

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California Appellate Court Said Environmental Review for Basketball Arena Did Not Need to Quantify Greenhouse Gas Emissions

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.

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

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Zoning and spatial planning are both methods for guiding the distribution of people and activities in a space, and are regulatory restriction.

Financial actors and resources that are primarily directed towards climate change mitigation, adaptation and compensation.

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

Either money or something of monetary value is transferred between two or more organisations, people or countries.

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A long-lived, colourless gas, chiefly emitted from fossil fuel combustion, deforestation and cement production.

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Oil is a combustible liquid fossil fuel composed mainly of hydrocarbons, occurring as crude oil and refined into petroleum products such as petrol, diesel and kerosene.

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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 Said Environmental Review for Basketball Arena Did Not Need to Quantify Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Target

Policy instrument

Risk

Impacted group

Just transition

Renewable energy

Fossil fuel

Greenhouse gas

Economic sector

Adaptation/resilience

Finance