California Air Resources Board

Principal Investigator/Authors: Carolina Reid, Rachel Morello-Frosch, Yael Nidam

Contractor: University of California, Berkeley

Sub-contractors: The Greenlining Institute, Physicians for Social Responsibility Los Angeles

Contract Number: 22STC018

Project Status: Active

Relevant CARB programs: Building Decarbonization

Topic areas: Zero-Emission Appliance Standards, State Implementation Plans (SIPs), Indoor Air Quality & Exposure, Environmental Justice

Research Summary:

Equitably scaling up housing decarbonization requires removing the barriers for participation among low-income and Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) households. While the barriers to implementation are well-known– including factors such as cost, access to finance, access to information, technical capacity, owner-renter split incentives, renter displacement risk, and trust–there has been significantly less research on implementation pathways that can overcome these barriers. Disadvantaged communities, as defined by SB 535, are also often underrepresented in research and policy translation efforts, which deepens distrust, and leads to poorly designed interventions.

This study is designed to meet three objectives: (1) Increase understanding of how different governance/program structures are undertaking the implementation of decarbonization across California, and the strengths and limitations of existing approaches; (2) Collect and analyze data on the costs as well as the energy, health, and financial impacts of implementation for low- and middle-income (LMI) households; and (3) Develop a framework to increase local capacity for equitable implementation among disadvantaged communities.

This study will use mixed methods to achieve these objectives through the following tasks:

1. Implement a Participatory Action Research model and form an Advisory Committee to guide all aspects of the study, including data collection, analysis, interpretation, and knowledge dissemination.
2. Literature review of household decarbonization implementation models to evaluate how equity has been prioritized and measured across the various models.
3. Statewide review of decarbonization programs to reveal varied institutional approaches to decarbonization in low-income and BIPOC communities, evaluate their ability to promote equitable housing decarbonization, and assess the opportunities and challenges for scaling up these models across the state.
4. In-depth case study of a public-private partnership approach in the East Bay to collect novel data on the costs and impacts of residential decarbonization on low-income households. The case study will include interviews with implementing partners, surveys with residents before and after implementation to understand their experiences, and analysis on the costs, health implications, and financial impacts of retrofits for participating households.
5. Critical review of policy cost analysis and development and integration of equity indicators to evaluate decarbonization policies.
6. Policy recommendations to build community capacity for housing decarbonization.

Keywords: communities, equity, sustainable communities and health, environmental justice, emission sources, reducing disparities, greenhouse gas emissions, social equity, climate change oxides of nitrogen (NOx) emissions, NOx reductions, priority communities, CalEnviroScreen (CES), state implementation plans (SIP), air quality, particulate matter (PM), PM2.5, climate impacts, energy, greenhouse gas reduction strategies, equitable and affordable housing, climate actions, equitable climate policy