Jonathon Berman, jonathon.berman@sierraclub.org
SAN DIEGO, CA -- Today, the Sierra Club filed two lawsuits challenging the County of San Diego’s latest iteration of its Climate Action Plan, which again fails to set forth concrete, enforceable measures that adequately reduce the climate change impacts of development in the county. The lawsuit alleges that the Climate Action Plan relies too heavily on carbon credit programs located outside of the county, stating that San Diego officials will not be able to survey and enforce the authenticity of these credits and therefore does not actually achieve confirmable emissions reductions. One case, filed by the Sierra Club, is another phase of a case brought back in 2012. The new case, which is joined by a number of environmental groups, involves a new cause of action that was not previously brought.
“The San Diego Board of Supervisors once again is failing the people they are charged to protect” said Sierra Club San Diego Conservation Chair George Courser. “Rather than calling for unenforceable actions that can easily be cast aside and ignored, the Board must adopt a legally adequate Climate Action Plan that reduces greenhouse gas emissions and protects the clean air and water and health of San Diegans.”
San Diego’s climate plan calls for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions to 77 percent below 2014 levels by 2050 but relies on offsetting emissions through carbon credits to get there. Under this proposal, developers are allowed to maintain business as usual all while spending money to take credit for global carbon reductions that may be illusory and will not provide the air quality benefit to San Diegans that local offsets would provide.
"In 2011, the County promised to prepare a Climate Action Plan that reduces greenhouse gas emissions in the County, but it has reneged on its promise,” said Josh Chatten-Brown of Chatten-Brown & Carstens. “Moreover, the County essentially allows unbridled development in far-flung areas provided that developers purchase carbon offsets from anywhere in the world. Such offsets may be completely illusory and would not benefit the residents of San Diego as offsets attained through local projects would. The Sierra Club and other environmental groups filed this lawsuit to ensure the County fulfills its original promise."
The Sierra Club was joined by Center for Biological Diversity, Cleveland National Forest Foundation, Climate Action Campaign, Endangered Habitats League, Environmental Center of San Diego, and Preserve Wild Santee in the lawsuit filed by Chatten-Brown and Carstens.
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with more than 3 million members and supporters. In addition to helping people from all backgrounds explore nature and our outdoor heritage, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.