Newsom’s skipping COP

COP28 GUEST LIST: Gov. Gavin Newsom has been going all in on international diplomacy of late — last month he was in China signing climate agreements with local governments; this week he’s trying to keep the momentum going at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in San Francisco, where he’ll be speaking Wednesday.

But he won’t be going to COP28, the United Nations climate convention happening in Dubai from Nov. 30 to Dec. 8. His office said he has scheduling conflicts and needs to focus on other priorities, like the budget.

California has historically had a large presence at the COP conferences, exemplified by Jerry Brown’s participation in Paris in 2015. A phalanx of state lawmakers plans to be there, although attendance is in flux because of travel complexities, limited credentials and security concerns.

The Senate delegation includes Sens. Henry Stern (D-Sherman Oaks), Anna Caballero (D-Salinas), Monique Limón (D-Santa Barbara), María Elena Durazo (D-Los Angeles), Melissa Hurtado (D-Bakersfield), according to Stern, who’s been coordinating the group. A spokesperson for Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas (D-Hollister) didn’t say which lawmakers from the Assembly side are planning to go.

Policymakers and climate experts aren’t too worried that Newsom won’t be there this year. That’s partly because he’s already been so focused on cooperation with China, and partly because no one is expecting much to happen in Dubai.

Talks are mainly expected to focus on assessing countries’ emissions reductions so far in preparation for setting new goals in future talks, on implementing a fund for reparations payments to poorer countries suffering the consequences of climate change, known as “loss and damage” compensation, and on setting new goals for climate adaptation and mitigation finance.

There’s also the awkwardness of a major oil producer hosting the talks. The UAE had originally tried to restrict journalists from reporting criticisms of its policies in media guidelines that were posted on the U.N. website, but walked the rules back last week.

“There are a lot of reasons that Dubai is a complicated trip right now,” Stern said in a text message. “It’s complicated to go abroad, period, right now, and especially in that region. It’s also this other context of, ‘You’re in an oil country,’ so are we going to be speaking truth to power there?”

“I doubt the hosts would love our setbacks policy,” he added. “We have almost a duty to be California out there and say it how it is.”

Some key administration officials will be in Dubai, including Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot. That’s enough star power to break through the crowds, even without Newsom, one former top state climate official said.

“California gets huge attention at the COP, because we are genuinely seen as a beacon of hope,” former California Air Resources Board chair Mary Nichols said in an interview. “But the governor doesn’t need to go to Dubai to make that happen.”

And Newsom’s China trip last month may help yet to pave the way for COP.

One place to watch for a preview of potential movement will be Xi’s meeting with Biden this week on the sidelines of APEC. U.S. climate envoy John Kerry met with his Chinese counterpart Xie Zhenhua in Sunnylands, Calif., last week for four days of climate talks. Kerry said they reached understandings and agreements that will help ensure progress is made at the conference, but the details have yet to be released.

“If they wanted to do something like what happened before Paris, where Obama and Xi stood up and issued their respective pledges for the two countries, that’d be a natural time to do it to make a big splash before COP,” said Alex Wang, a UCLA law professor and co-director of the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment. He’s watching for details on loss and damage, commitments on financing, and methane. — DK, BB

Did someone forward you this newsletter? Sign up here!

CLIMATE ROI: A climate investment plan from California’s largest public pension fund was roundly regarded as a good first step at a public airing today.

The California Public Employees’ Retirement System unveiled a plan 10 days ago to expand climate-oriented investments to $100 billion by 2030 and to create a pathway to ditch companies the system anticipates could lose money by ignoring climate change. The system’s investment staff talked over the plan in public for the first time today with the CalPERS board, which seemed to like it.

The system’s interim Chief Investment Officer Dan Bienvenue emphasized the plan was focused on “generating returns” — no more, no less.

Still, staff said the plan was targeted at decarbonizing the economy, not just its $456 billion investment portfolio.

“These sort of investments should help the fund meet its return objectives but also help decarbonize the fund and ultimately decarbonize the world,” said Travis Antoniono, a sustainability-focused investment director at the fund.

Most commenters, including Ruth Holton-Hodson, a member of an organization called Third Act that organizes seniors for policy advocacy, urged the board to strive to reach net zero earlier than its goal of 2050.

“I would urge you to commit yourselves to investments and a net zero timeline that keeps the planet livable for all of us, ensuring CalPERS beneficiaries will still be here to be able to benefit from their pensions,” she said.

A couple retirees accused the system of prioritizing social or political objectives over returns — a recurring concern raised by groups representing large numbers of retirees that are influential in CalPERS board elections. — WV

BRINGING HOME THE BACON: A 3-year-old FEMA program known as Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities, or BRIC, set aside billions of dollars for projects to protect communities against the strengthening impacts of disasters like floods and wildfires.

So far it’s been monopolized by California (and a few other large states — but mostly California), reports Thomas Frank for POLITICO’s E&E News.

California, with 12 percent of the U.S. population, has received nearly a quarter of all BRIC funding — $930 million. California and the other big recipients — New York, Florida, North Carolina and Washington — account for 30 percent of the country’s population but have received half of all BRIC funding, or $2 billion, since 2021.

The program serves as a warning as the Biden administration distributes tens of billions of dollars in new climate-resilience money, often through competitions that favor large, affluent jurisdictions with the resources to submit detailed grant applications.

“We’re seeing year after year that there are many communities that are low-capacity or rural that are just not getting this money,” Kristin Smith, a climate expert at Headwaters Economics research group in Montana who analyzed BRIC allocations, told Thomas.

STORM CHASERS: It’s the start of the rainy season — cue the breathless articles about how much precipitation each storm might bring.

The storm system arriving late tonight in the Bay Area is confounding forecasters, as SFGate reports. They’re not calling it an “atmospheric river,” but they’re still expecting it to last 4 or 5 days.

Meteorologists are tentatively predicting a wet year thanks to warm ocean temperatures and an El Niño cycle: “If I had to put money on it, I’d put my money on wet, although I wouldn’t put a lot of money on it,” UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain said in an interview.

That means less drought talk and more talk about how to build and manage water storage.

Some big names are discussing the issue tomorrow at the Public Policy Institute of California, including the Natural Resources Agency’s deputy secretary for water, Nancy Vogel, State Water Contractors general manager Jennifer Pierre and State Water Resources Control Board member Laurel Firestone.

— Cuyama Valley residents are boycotting carrots grown with local groundwater.

— Sammy Roth wants more clean energy projects on public lands.

— A Berkeley-affiliated startup is making bricks from “smushed pieces of plants.”

Correction: An earlier version of this report listed state Sen. Aisha Wahab as part of a delegation attending COP28. She will not be attending.