The California Transportation Plan 2050 (CTP)  was recently released by CalTrans. To respond to the plan, 17 organizations within the ClimatePlan network signed on to a CTP 2050 comment letter and submitted the letter on October 22, 2020. In the letter, ClimatePlan and other organizations highlight that we appreciate the aspirations of the CTP and its goals to provide a coordinated vision for transportation in California that reduces emissions, advances equity, and promotes public health. We also offer many recommendations on how the CTP can make even further progress in these areas. 

Below are several general themes that ClimatePlan and other signers would like to see bolstered and addressed more thoroughly throughout the Plan. We include very specific recommendations within each of these themes in the full letter.  You can read the full PDF of the letter here. 

Prioritizing Equity
While we commend Caltrans for incorporating an equity portion into their plan, our overarching recommendation is, in addition to just having a separate equity goal, equity should be integrated into each strategy addressing the areas or people in most need. 

Achieve Our Climate Goals
The Plan appropriately draws on many other plans and builds on the earlier CTP 2040. However, it is unclear what progress, if any, has been made in the implementation of earlier plans or what barriers to implementation of earlier plans have been identified. To meet our climate goals, these types of assessments need to be made.

Improving Quality of Life

Our transportation system is inextricably linked to the quality of life. As we strive to make our transportation system cleaner, it is not enough if it is not accessible transportation in certain areas, particularly low-income and rural areas. Quality transportation promotes quality health outcomes.

For more information, contact Nailah Pope-Harden, ClimatePlan's State Policy Manager, at [email protected] 

As we navigate through a global pandemic, massive wildfires and hazardous air quality, a racial reckoning, and an upcoming election, self care and finding ways to stay resilient are of utmost importance. At ClimatePlan, we’re constantly thinking about how to stay resilient as a network, as a team, and as individual staff members. It has been a challenging year to say the least, but we’re finding ways to stay afloat during these tough times and use these difficult times to innovate and create if we have the mental and emotional bandwidth to do so. It’s become increasingly clear that we’re undergoing major transformations from the personal to the collective level and we’re navigating through it - as bravely as we can - together. 

It’s not at all lost on us within the ClimatePlan network that we’re truly doing some of the most challenging work right now in ultimately trying to address and reverse climate change and it’s multitude of impacts. To do this work while the climate crisis is right at our front doors is sobering. Below are some of the ways that we’re navigating through this as a network and as a team. 

Individual Self Care

For our individual self care, on our own time, we’re following the lead of theorist Audre Lorde when she said “Caring for myself is not self-indulgence. It is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” We know that taking care of ourselves allows us to show up with more presence, spaciousness, and bandwidth when we need to. 

We’re taking care of ourselves in the following ways: 

1. Taking long walks and hot epsom salt baths (pro tip: try Dr. Singha’s Mustard Bath), 
2. Journaling and diffusing essential oils throughout the day, 
3. Eating nutritious foods as best we can and breaking up long days with 10-minute dance parties and good music, 
4. Stretching and doing yoga at the beginning and end of each day.

Spring Opara at CompassPoint NonProfit Services also shares an incredible list of 5 weeks of self care that we’ve been following. 

But we’re also taking self care a step further - in a place that self care really matters. We’re putting our shared agreements into practice in very tangible ways. 

For those that don’t know, ClimatePlan went through a major transition this summer. We transitioned from our long-time fiscal sponsor, TransForm, to our new fiscal sponsor, Community Partners. While we transitioned to Community Partners, most of ClimatePlan’s staff were offline. 

While the transition took longer than expected, I am happy to announce that we are back (and yes, both childhood Chanell and my son are pleased that I could fit a Ghostbusters 2 reference into this blog post, especially since Halloween is around the corner).  

What is the first thing we did when we returned? Setting our strategic intentions for greater transparency, connection, and advocacy within our network. As a team, we wanted to be intentional about the structures we set up as we returned back to work. We wanted to make sure that our structures and decision-making were transparent for our network and nimble enough to address the massive transitions we’re experiencing externally (the wildfires, pandemic, and racial reckoning) as well as internally (new fiscal sponsor, new Advisory Board and staff roles and responsibilities). 

Keep reading to learn more about the changes at ClimatePlan. 

Contact: Chanell Fletcher, ClimatePlan Executive Director, 510-695-1009 (cell)

OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA – ClimatePlan applauds Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Executive Order N-82-20 announced today to conserve 30 percent of natural and working lands by 2030. This Administration’s leadership is essential to integrating natural and working lands into addressing climate change and protecting the health of Californians. ClimatePlan believes this announcement, coupled with previous Executive Orders, will put California on the right track to reduce emissions and provide a model for the nation to meaningfully and comprehensively address climate change. 

Swift implementation of the multiple goals detailed in the Executive Order is critical if we want to maximize the sequestration benefits of our natural and working lands, which must include a comprehensive funding strategy and additional policy guidance.