An example of efficient irrigation.
The California Natural Resources Agency has released an updated report on state actions and strategies to adapt to a changing climate. The Safeguarding California Plan: 2018 Update lays out a road map for everything state agencies are doing and will do to protect communities, infrastructure, services, and the natural environment from climate change impacts.
As California continues to experience rising average temperatures, destructive fires, higher sea levels, and extreme precipitation events, the plan lays out 69 recommendations across 11 sectors and more than 1,000 ongoing actions and next steps developed by scientific and policy experts across 38 state agencies.
CDFA’s Climate Smart Agriculture outreach program is included as a platform that allows for the development of specific climate change adaptation and mitigation measures while at the same time sustainably increasing agricultural productivity. It is noted that climate-smart agriculture management practices are most efficiently and effectively shared by peer-to-peer, farmer-to-farmer interactions.
Additionally, CDFA’s State Water Efficiency and Enhancement Program (SWEEP) is featured with an example of project success at a Merced County farm and a listing of next steps to increase the program’s impact; and the agency’s Healthy Soils Program and Dairy Digester Research and Development Program were also covered with program descriptions and a listing of next steps.
Later this year, the Natural Resources Agency and other agencies will release California’s Fourth Climate Change Assessment, which will include more than 50 reports on expected climate change impacts in California. The Assessment will also include nine regional reports, three topical reports, and a statewide report on vulnerabilities and solutions to climate impacts across the 11 sectors addressed in the 2018 update to the Safeguarding California Plan.
More information about the state’s climate change adaptation efforts can be found at http://resources.ca.gov/climate/safeguarding/.