This post originally appeared on TransForm’s blog, TransForum.
Across the state, a dozen different agencies are doling out millions of cap-and-trade dollars to hundreds of communities. But who’s counting?
We are.
Last week, we launched ClimateBenefitsCA.org, a new website that lets you see what projects California’s cap-and-trade program is funding, and how these investments are making our state’s communities more sustainable, healthy, and fair.
Climate Benefits for California is a searchable online map that shows how California’s climate program is improving people’s lives. You can use the map to see what projects are funded; filter them by geography, program, or year; and add up the benefits.
With the help of the data wizards at GreenInfo Network and a team of collaborators, we’ve collected the grant information released by multiple state agencies and transformed it into a one-stop shop. Here you can find, view, and assess the impacts of investments funded through the California Climate Investments Program (CCIP, formerly the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund or GGRF).
The map also tells the stories of the people and communities who are turning these investments into solutions to our state’s most pressing environmental, social, and economic issues.
Places like Stockton, where a new affordable housing development connected to public transportation will help address the critical problem of homeless working families and provide social services for veterans.
Or Merced, where free bus passes will be made available to low-income people and people with disabilities to get more people riding transit in communities facing economic struggles.
Or Los Angeles, where improvements to the Willowbrook Rosa Parks Station and Blue Line light rail will make getting to transit – and jobs – safer and more reliable for residents living in one of South Central Los Angeles’s roughest neighborhoods.
And that’s just scratching the surface.
Search the map to learn more about these and other projects curbing our climate pollution and improving people’s lives.
These stories are especially important as the legislature considers whether and how to extend our climate programs past 2020. By showing how the California Climate Investments Program is a powerful tool for reducing emissions and transforming the economy and health of our communities, we make the case for strengthening the climate programs that have made California a national and world-wide leader in climate protection.
Over time, as the California Climate Investments Program grows and we continue to build more features on the map, we hope the map will become an essential tool for understanding how all these grants add up to a better, brighter future for California – and the world.
For now, we invite you to take a tour of ClimateBenefitsCA.org. Be sure to sign up for email updates so you’ll know when new grants are published, and when new features are available. And drop us a line anytime with your feedback or ideas about how we can continue to make this an even better resource for all of us who want to see California’s climate program succeed.
You know that California is leading the way on fighting climate change – imagine what will be possible when we can see it.