Newsom Climate Report Card, January 2021 Update
2020 was a record-breaking year for the climate crisis in California. Ongoing drought and elevated temperatures fed an especially long and destructive wildfire season. Californians once again endured dangerous levels of smoke for weeks on end,
[1] only this time they did so in the middle of a dangerous pandemic that attacks the respiratory system. The Covid-19 pandemic worsened the ongoing climate, public health, air pollution, housing, economic, and systemic racism crises, and highlighted the way those crises overlap and bring harm to vulnerable communities across the state.
Governor Gavin Newsom took advantage of the moment to connect the wildfires to the climate crisis and our reliance on fossil fuels. In September 2020, he issued an Executive Order requiring 100% of new passenger cars and trucks to be zero-emission vehicles by 2035.