Form 990 for tax year 2023

Totals

Total revenue

$3,130,318

Total expenses

$3,157,822

Contributions and grants received

$3,068,304

Grants paid

$59,431

Program service revenue

$48,369

Investment income

$13,645

Other revenue

$0

Total assets, end of year

$1,138,776

Total liabilities, end of year

$213,340

Net assets or fund balances, end of year

$925,436

Program services expenses (Part IX)

$2,405,616

Management and general expenses

$353,404

Fundraising expenses

$398,802

Program service expenses (Part III)

$2,405,616

Program services were 76.2% of total expenses calculated — Part IX's program-services column over total expenses, both as filed.

Line items

Every line the filer filed in Parts VIII, IX and X, as filed and in filed order. Blank columns are left out, and the lines are not forced to add up to the totals above.

Mission and programs · 2023

• Policy Development & ImplementationThis year, The Climate Center pursued climate policy in California in five main areas: natural carbon sequestration, carbon dioxide removal, defending funding for existing climate priorities in the state budget, divesting state employee pension funds from oil and gas companies, and using the batteries in electric vehicles to provide power to our homes, businesses and the grid when needed.In 2022, The Climate Center co-led a coalition of over 80 organizations to pass a historic natural carbon sequestration law, AB 1757, requiring the state to set ambitious targets for 2030, 2038 and 2045 and to develop other natural climate solutions. We organized a group of environmental and conservation nonprofit organizations to give input into an extensive process led by California Natural Resources Agency, California Air Resources Board and California Department of Food & Agriculture that culminated in setting the actual scientific targets for carbon sequestration across six land types. As a result the state is positioned to over the next 20 years to transform over 50 million acres into healthier, climate-resilient landscapes, spanning farms, ranches, forests, grasslands, and wetlands.The UNs Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change prescription is clear: we must cut emissions in half by 2030 AND remove upwards of a trillion tons of carbon that we have already put in the atmosphere to stabilize the climate. The Climate Center is working to educate the environmental and environmental justice community in California on the need for carbon dioxide removal (CDR) and the various options that have been initiated or are planned. We have also worked closely with Senator Becker on his SB 308, Carbon Dioxide Removal Market Development Act, which would require the the California Air Resources Board to adopt regulations to require certain emitting entities to purchase negative emissions credits equal to a specified amount of their greenhouse gas emissions in each calendar year beginning in the 2028 calendar year. Our role is to work with environmental justice and environmental partners to ensure that there are adequate protections for local communities that are subject to CDR development in the bill. The bill has passed the senate and is headed to the assembly.We also worked leading a coalition of organizations around climate budget defense. This year California faced a $45 billion budget deficit. The Governors early proposed budget contained significant cuts to the historic climate investments committed to by the state in 2022. Although large cuts and delays to climate priorities were still part of the final budget, the coalition was able to work with legislators to prevent hundreds of millions in proposed cuts to key state climate programs, including:- Reversed $100 million in cuts to the Active Transportation Program, which funds biking and pedestrian infrastructure.- Directing the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to ensure that existing clean car incentive programs for low-income and disadvantaged communities can continue operating making the best use of the money available.- Restored funding for offshore wind port investments- Preserved $551 million in the Equitable Building Decarbonization Program (EBD) in the 2024-2025 budgetWe also educated legislators and the public about the hundreds of millions, potentially billions of dollars in subsidies that are available through state tax code to oil and gas companies at the same time the industry is making record profits in California. We hope to get a state agency to provide a detailed analysis on what these subsidies are actually costing the state, so that legislators have the information that they need to close these loop holes. Another way that we worked with partners to try to provide the funding needed for climate adaptation and mitigation was working on a climate bond. There were two bills in the assembly and one in the senate related to the climate bond. The Climate Centers focus on the bond, which ended up representing $10 billion in climate investments, was to work with partners to ensure that natural and working lands were a significant part of the investment. The bond was voted out of the legislature and will be on the November ballot for California voters to decide if they want to support these climate investments. We will work with a broad coalition to educate the public about how these investments will create a healthier and safer California, as well as help the state meet its statutory climate goals.We also worked with Senator Gonzalezs office and other partners on SB 252 the Fossil Fuel Divestment Act. This bill would have prohibited the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) and the California State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS) from investing in fossil fuel companies, and would require that they divest any current holdings in these companies by 2030. Unfortunately, after passing through the senate the bill could not get through a policy committee in the assembly.We worked with Senator Nancy Skinner on SB 59, a bill that aims to unlock the potential for millions of electric vehicles that will be sold in California to power homes during outages, lower energy bills for Californians, reduce air pollution, and make the electricity grid more reliable. The bill would authorize the California Air Resources Board to require that electric vehicles (EVs) sold in California have bidirectional capability. We are working with 200 organizations from across the state to help this bill become law by September 2024. This policy could be a significant part of ensuring that we have enough storage and flexibility in our electricity system to incorporate all the intermittent renewable energy that we need to get to our clean energy goals.In addition to our priority legislation, we played a significant role in helping pass a couple of climate bills focused on corporate accountability. We supported the passage of Senator Wieners SB 253, the Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act, into law. This law will require all large, U.S.-based corporations doing business in California that make more than $1 billion annually to publicly disclose their full carbon footprint in a way that is easily understandable and available to the public. We also worked for the passage of SB 261, Senator Sterns bill which requires corporations to submit to the California Air Resources Board, and make available to the public on its own website, a report that discloses climate-related financial risk. Now that the Governor signed these two bills into law, we are working to ensure that they are funded by his administration. We are concerned that they are slow walking the implementation of these historic and critical laws.

  Expenses $980,337

• Climate-Safe California Partnership BuildingFounded in 2001, The Climate Center is a climate and energy policy nonprofit working to rapidly reduce climate pollution at scale, starting in California. We believe in thriving, healthy communities. We envision a future where everyone in California enjoys clean air and water, renewable and reliable energy, healthy food, thriving nature, and more. We believe that as goes California, so goes the world.Our signature campaign, Climate-Safe California, offers a roadmap for climate action in the worlds fifth-largest economy. Climate-Safe California is a set of policies that would enable California to remove more climate pollution from the atmosphere than we emit as soon as possible while creating thousands of jobs and repairing environmental injustices. Climate-Safe California and all of The Climate Centers work is guided by three core principles: follow the latest science, prioritize climate justice, and secure a just transition for workers. Currently, we have over 2,469 total endorsements from nonprofits, businesses, elected officials, cities, counties and other governmental bodies, and individuals. We have also built and engage with diverse coalitions to realize relevant policy components of Climate-Safe California, especially on facilitating community energy resilience with local scale solar and storage, setting aggressive emission reduction targets, phasing out fossil fuels, scaling up nature-based carbon sequestration, and securing the necessary funding for speed and scale implementation.

  Expenses $743,844 · Grants $59,431

• Public Outreach & CommunicationThe Climate Center has pursued multiple outreach strategies to educate decision makers and the public about the urgency of the climate crisis and an array of accelerated, equitable solutions that the state can pursue now to address it. The Climate Center hosted the 2024 California Climate Policy Summit on March 19 in Sacramento. We had over 400 people registered with featured speakers including Lauren Sanchez, the Governors Senior Climate Advisor, who spoke about the impact of oil and gas production on frontline communities, and numerous senators and assembly members from the California legislature. This event was followed by The Climate Centers Advocacy Day, during which participants met with 48 legislative offices and discussed critical climate policies. This year we produced nine webinars with more than 2,600 registrants. The webinars covered the science of the climate crisis, the impacts of the fossil fuel economy on local communities, a recap of the accomplishments and unfinished business of the 2023 CA legislative session, the impact of Californias budget deficit on state climate programs, and key climate policy solutions for consideration by Californias state decision makers. Presenters included California state legislators, state regulators, environmental justice groups, and community members.As an official Observer NGO The Climate Center helped organize the attendance of California delegation of decision makers at COP 28, in Dubai. We hosted an official UN side event on natural carbon sequestration and the importance of healthy soils with state officials, and international collaborators, held two press conferences, and organized an event on Californias climate accomplishments that included the Speaker of the CA Assembly, three senators and one additional assembly member. We also hosted private events including an international panel on what is needed for a managed transition away from fossil fuels, the appropriate role for green hydrogen, and harnessing the power of nature in achieving the worlds 1.5 C goal. COP is an opportunity to educate leaders from other parts of the world about climate solutions that California is leading on as well as an opportunity for state lawmakers to learn about and be inspired about solutions being implemented in other countries. Our efforts have also garnered significant media coverage in California, raising public awareness and building momentum for accelerated, equitable climate action. This year, we were quoted, cited, or mentioned in 84 news stories between July 2023 and June 2024 and we published two op-eds (Governor Newsom: Save lives, not fossil fuel corporations, Capitol Weekly, April 18, 2024 and A Sacramento fossil fuel lobbyist bragged about corrupting the democratic process, Sacramento Bee, July 22, 2023). Weve also held events for supporters in Los Angeles and San Francisco to highlight our work. This year, we produced a policy report called Reforming Californias Cap and Trade Program. The California Cap and Trade Program plays a pivotal role in the states efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. A review of the program ahead of the upcoming 2025 compliance period has opened a critical window of opportunity to address and correct the programs recognized shortcomings. In this policy brief, we outline three crucial enhancements to improve the effectiveness of the program in advancing Californias climate goals. At the same time the California Air Resources Board is doing a public reassessment of the cap and trade program, particularly around reducing the oversupply of pollution allowances on the market. We have submitted a couple of public comment letters to CARB with our partners to push CARB to be aggressive in restricting allowances and make other necessary reforms to the program.Our team is also working on a paper that will address Californias current electricity affordability crisis by laying out a clear vision for a future electricity system that relies more heavily on distributed energy resources and will be more affordable for ratepayers, but also more reliable, resilient, and safe.

  Expenses $681,435 · Revenue $48,369

As filed on the 2023 return.

Listed in Part VII

Compensation is as filed in Part VII: reportable pay from this organization and from related organizations, other compensation, and hours per week. The total, marked calculated, is our sum of the three dollar columns, with a blank column counted as $0; the form itself has no total. On a Form 990-EZ the columns are Part IV's instead, and on a Form 990-PF Part VIII's — compensation, contributions to benefit plans, and expense account — and the total sums those. A Schedule J breakdown is as filed: base pay, bonus, other, deferred compensation and nontaxable benefits from this organization, with any from related organizations beside each, and the filer's own total. It is shown with the Part VII listing of the same name on the same return. The form gives no key between the two, so that pairing is ours, and is marked matched by us.

Schedule J

Part I's answers as filed. A line not listed was left unanswered; on lines 1a and 3 that means the box was not checked.

Grants on this return

• Carbon Cycle Institute

  $50,000

  Pass through grant

• SF Estuary Institute

  $8,000

  Partner pass through stipend

Provenance

Return type

form_990

Tax year

2023

Filed

5 March 2025

IRS schema version

2023v6.0

Source object

202540649349301704

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