SACRAMENTO – The State Assembly has approved a bill jointly authored by Assemblyman Wesley Chesbro (D-North Coast) and Assemblyman Ira Ruskin (D-Redwood City) that will ensure California is prepared to cope with climate change in the coming decades.

“A new report this month by a panel of respected marine scientists warns that over the next half century climate change will have a severe impact on California’s coastline,” Chesbro said. “In addition to rising sea levels, warmer ocean waters will generate more intense storms, the report forecasts. Mendocino County could lose more than eight square miles of cliffs and dunes to erosion, according to the report, and warming rivers could threaten the survival of Coho salmon and steelhead.”

AB 2329, which received strong support in the Assembly, will codify Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 2005 Executive Order (S-3-05), which created California’s Climate Action Team.

Sponsored by the Audubon California, Defenders of Wildlife and the Nature Conservancy, AB 2329 ensures the Climate Action Team will continue to meet and deliver on its mission of coordinating climate-change policy activities across state agencies. Specifically, the multiagency group is coordinating California’s efforts to meet its greenhouse gas reduction goals and adapt to a changing climate.

“We thank Assemblymembers Chesbro and Ruskin for their leadership and commitment to the environment in guiding AB 2329 successfully through the Assembly,” said Louis Blumberg, director of the Nature Conservancy's climate-change work in California. “AB 2329 will ensure that the state’s actions to address climate change are coordinated, and that its scarce resources are efficiently and effectively used to tackle this major environmental problem.”