Newsome’s Office Announces New California Environmental Campaign at Climate Week in New York

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office will announce a new campaign Monday during Climate Week NYC to encourage 1 million Californians to take everyday actions to fight climate change.

“Every day, Californians take small actions that, together, help us create a better world for our children and grandchildren,” Newsom said in a prepared statement. “The Climate Action Counts campaign will empower Californians to do something big and impactful.”

The campaign encourages Californians to pledge to take “everyday actions” to combat global warming, such as composting, using public transportation instead of driving, and planting trees or native plants. Details can be found on the new Climate Action Counts website.

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Officials were expected to unveil the campaign as the start of several California-focused events during Climate Week NYC. The event, held annually in New York City, aims to bring together climate leaders from government, industry and activists to seek and promote solutions to global warming.

The Climate Pledge aims to motivate Californians to live more sustainably, reduce their reliance on planet-warming fossil fuels and combat feelings of anxiety and helplessness that can come with climate change.

The campaign builds on the California Climate Action Corps, a volunteer program to address climate change that the governor’s office announced four years ago at Climate Week NYC. Since then, the program has grown to 400 members and became a model for other states and the American Climate Corps at the White House.

“We’ve already engaged tens of thousands of volunteers,” said Josh Fryday, director of services in the governor’s office. “What we hope to do now is scale up our efforts to mobilize Californians by engaging a million people to take these simple, everyday actions that make a real difference.”

For California to meet its ambitious climate goals, a large portion of the population needs to drastically reduce emissions by switching to electric vehicles and replacing gas heating in their homes, said Christopher Jones, a carbon footprint researcher and director of the CoolClimate Network at the University of California, Berkeley.

Jones said the pledge itself likely won’t significantly impact emissions, but given that state policies already effectively eliminate fossil fuel use for decades to come, Climate Action Counts could help convince Californians to take climate action and make needed lifestyle changes.

“The truth is, big actions aren’t on the list,” he said. But the promise could help Californians understand that “this is who we are — Californians are cool. Californians care about the environment. Californians identify as leaders in this area.”

The campaign aims not only to reduce emissions, but also to reduce waste and pollution, and encourage people to connect with nature and their communities.

But experts say convincing people to adopt new habits through communication and promises alone can be a challenge.

The research “makes it pretty clear that stronger incentives are going to work better than just transportation,” said Seth Wynes, a professor at the University of Waterloo in Canada who studies the impact of individual action on the climate. “People aren’t just going to give up their cars and bikes to go to work if cycling is so dangerous.”

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This isn’t the first time officials have called on Californians to change their habits. In 2008, the state launched a campaign encouraging Californians to improve the energy efficiency of their homes and conserve electricity. While the campaign may have influenced change, it fell short of its initial goals.

During the 2012-2016 drought, the state tried to curb water use through public notices, water-use restrictions, and incentives to improve water efficiency. While per-person water use increased after restrictions were lifted, it remained lower than before the drought—suggesting that many Californians had permanently changed their habits.

The governor’s office also plans to work with local partners to reach Californians in their own communities, which experts say can make this type of campaign more effective.

“Together we can create collective impact,” Fryday said, “and our partners, by organizing people on campuses, in the workplace and in their cities, will show that we can do this.”

The California campaign announcement at Climate Week NYC is in keeping with the ethos of the meeting. Organizers ask attendees to come prepared to share a problem or weakness they need help solving, and put some pressure on participating organizations and governments to announce new goals and efforts.

“It’s always a competition, too. … We’re always initiating it,” said Angela Barranco, executive director of the Climate Group, a charity organizing the North American event. “There’s pressure to come out with something that’s actually delivered, and I think we need to keep that pressure up.”

Climate Week began in 2009 as a series of smaller panel discussions designed to get world leaders gathered at the nearby UN General Assembly headquarters to talk about climate issues.

Since then, the focus has shifted from talking about the problem to inspiring action. California has taken a leading role in this effort and now represents North America as co-chair of a group of governments committed to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.

“California is coming in and really investing in most of their ambitions,” Barranco said. “So they’ve become experts at the table — and not just in the United States.”

This article originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.