Welcome to the Yolo County Climate Action & Sustainability Newsletter! We are excited to share updates from our climate action and adaptation planning (CAAP) process, countywide sustainability efforts, upcoming events, and sustainability resources as we work to meet our goal of achieving a carbon negative footprint by 2030.

We are now on social media! Be sure to follow us on Instagram and Facebook for more updates on our CAAP process.

If you have resources or events you would like to be featured on the newsletter, submit them via email to sustainability@yolocounty.org for consideration. 

The November YCCAC Virtual Meeting is a great opportunity to hear more about our 2030 CAAP and provide your input on critical components of out planning process. View the Zoom link here to join our monthly meeting and view the Agenda and Meeting Materials.

🌱 Announcing our Climate Action and Adaptation Planning Consulting Team! On November 22^nd, the Board of Supervisors approved a 2-year contract with Dudek to provide climate action and adaptation planning services for Yolo County. Dudek will be working with County staff, the Yolo County Climate Action Commission, and members of the public to create an ambitious plan to reach our 2030 climate goals. The Board also approved a 2-year agreement with the Yolo County Resource Conservation District to support planning efforts related to Natural and Working Lands including engagement with the agricultural community and facilitation of the Natural and Working Lands Working Group. We’re excited to get started!

🌱 How are we advancing Equitable Engagement? Last week, the Yolo County Sustainability Program was awarded a grant from the Urban Sustainability Directors Network in the amount of $20,000 to support equitable community engagement strategies for the Climate Action and Adaptation Plan. These strategies—including providing stipends to Commission and Working Group members—were approved by the Board of Supervisors on November 22^nd along with funding for community-based outreach partners as well as incentives and support for public meeting participation.

🌱 The Yolo County Climate Action and Sustainability Website is now live! In a continuing effort to update Yolo County Climate Action and Sustainability Communications, we are excited to share an updated landing site for all of our ongoing climate and sustainability efforts. We look forward to continuing to improve it and welcome feedback. View the updated website here (Link).

November 28, 2022     Yolo County Climate Action Commission (YCCAC) Virtual Meeting – November 2022 | 4:00 PM – 6:30 PM

Join us at the November YCCAC Meeting to hear more about our 2030 Climate Action Plan  and provide your input on critical components of our planning process. View the agenda and meeting materials at the top of this email.

December 2, 2022        Yolo County Climate Compact Meeting | 10:00 – 11:30 AM

This meeting will provide an overview of countywide Climate Action Planning Efforts. This will be the last Climate Compact meeting under the leadership of the current Chair, Supervisor Don Saylor.

December 2, 2022        Cleaner Air Partnership Luncheon | 12:00-1:30 PM

Join Valley Vision  for a free in-person Cleaner Air Partnership Luncheon to discuss the future of heavy-duty truck emissions in the 6-County Sacramento Region. Register in-advance online for food and space planning purposes. This event will be held at the Sacramento State Aquatic Center.

December 7, 2022        Building a Resilient and Equitable Grid for the Future | 10:00 AM – 11:30 AM

This is the second webinar in the Envisioning a Climate-Safe California: Stories and Solutions series. This webinar will lay out a vision for the future of California’s electricity system and highlight the people and organizations working to create it. The discussion will cover the role of local governments, Community Choice Agencies (CCAs), and others in helping to plan for the use of clean, distributed energy in a way that maximizes benefits to the community and provides reliable, affordable electricity for all.

December 7, 2022        San Francisco State University: Art, Activism and Environmental Justice Exhibition | 6:00 – 7:15 PM

San Francisco State University’s latest exhibition Clearly Polluted: The Fight for Environmental Justice in the Bay Area investigates environmental racism in the San Francisco Bay Area. This event features a discussion from community advisors, local activists, and multimedia artists on the role of art in surfacing climate conversation and inspiring action.

December 8, 2022        Yolo County Fire Safe Council: Community Wildfire Planning Virtual Workshop | 6:00 PM

The Yolo County Fire Safe Council is hosting a virtual community planning    workshop to mitigate and prepare for wildfire risk in Yolo County. All county residents are invited to attend and guide Community Wildfire Protection Planning.

🌱 California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) 2022 Report: Indicators of Climate Change in California. This report portrays the impact of climate change on California’s environment and population. The newest edition contains information about the human influences that drive climate change and unique accounts from eight California Tribes.

🌱 Point-of-scale vouchers are now available for small business landscape professionals to purchase discounted zero-emission equipment. California’s Clean Off-Road Equipment Voucher Incentive Project (CORE) has allocated funding for small business led professional landscape services to adopt cleaner, quieter, and safer zero-emission landscaping equipment.

🌱 Envisioning a Climate-Safe California: Stories and Solutions: The Climate Center has launched a new webinar series to shed light on how California can move toward a climate-safe future. The next webinar event will focus on California’s electrical system and the people working behind it.

🌱 California unveils plan to reach carbon neutrality by 2045.On November 16^th, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) unveiled a new scoping plan that aims to curtail emissions by 48% by 2030. By 2045, the plan outlines a thirty-fivefold increase in zero-emission vehicles and four times the amount of power generation from wind and solar energy.

🌱 'Cultural burns' take place at Cache Creek Nature Preserve. The past several days, Woodland's Cache Creek Conservancy became a testing area for a series of 'cultural burns' to get rid of invasive and overgrown plants. This demonstration workshop was conducted by several state agencies in accordance with First Nation traditions.

🌱The 2022 United Nations Climate Conference (COP27) was held from November 6^th through November 18^th in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. The conference aims to guide countries in transitioning climate action pledges into implementation plans. In order for the goal of limiting global warming to no more than 1.5°C to remain possible, COP27 is an important opportunity for countries to initiate action. This year’s Conference of the Parties focused on finance and adaptation as key themes, a change from the previous conference’s focus on mitigation.