California’s Ocean Acidification Action Plan

October 2018

Download the draft here.

Continuing California’s bold leadership on climate change, the State of California Ocean Acidification Action Plan articulates a 10-year vision for addressing ocean acidification and a series of pragmatic actions to work towards that vision. It is designed for integration into public agency operations and to inform decisions made by members of the private sector and scientific community. In so doing, it may serve as a model for other jurisdictions seeking to undertake concrete actions to better understand, mitigate, and adapt to ocean acidification.

This State of California Ocean Acidification Action Plan (Action Plan) was produced by the California Ocean Protection Council in cooperation with the California Ocean Science Trust. This policy and management plan is one of the first of its kind, and was developed within the framework of the International Alliance to Combat Ocean Acidification (OA Alliance), a global partnership founded in 2016 to assist governments in taking meaningful action to anticipate, mitigate, and adapt to the significant changes to the chemistry of the world’s oceans that are now occurring as a result of carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions.

Development of the Action Plan involved broad consultation with policy-makers, managers, experts, and interested parties across California and the OA Alliance and utilized key resources (such as the OA Alliance’s OA Action Plan Toolkit) (see Appendix 2 of the Action Plan). The recently established Ocean Acidification and Hypoxia Science Task Force, convened per Assembly Bill 2139, provided scientific and technical input and reviewed the draft plan for scientific feasibility. The plan also underwent a 30-day public comment period. Final adoption of the Action Plan is anticipated at the Ocean Protection Council October 25, 2018 meeting.

August 1 – August 31, 2018: 30-day public comment period on draft Action Plan

August 21, 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM (PST): Public informational webinar. View the archived recording here.

September 12-14, 2018: Governor’s Global Climate Action Summit: Draft Action Plan highlights announced, San Francisco, CA

October 25, 2018: OPC Public Meeting: Consideration for adoption of the Action Plan, Santa Cruz, CA (webcast)

December 3-14, 2018: United Nations Climate Change Conference: Share Action Plan, Katowice, Poland

• California’s Action Plan Overview (PDF)
• Subscribe to the Ocean Protection Council Listserv (here)
• Visit OPC’s OA Action Plan page (here)
• California’s Ocean Acidification and Hypoxia Science Task Force
• International Alliance to Combat Ocean Acidification
  • OA Alliance’s OA Action Plan Toolkit
• Decade of Action: 2020 Report to OPC