Moving California’s homes and other buildings off of health- and climate-harming gas heating will require a transition to electric heat pumps. This year, the state pressed some legislative and regulatory levers to speed that process. SPUR recommendations and advocacy helped shape these building decarbonization wins.

California is already paying the cost of climate change impacts from devastating wildfires, droughts, floods, and other extreme weather events. By investing in climate action now, voters can reduce future costs both economic and social. California Prop. 4 would put $10 billion toward safe drinking water, drought resilience, ecosystem restoration, resilience to natural hazards, and more.

As the Bay Area phases out sales of gas furnaces and water heaters, more and more property owners will need to install zero-pollution, high-efficiency electric heat pumps in homes. City planners must quickly make these installations easier and more affordable by amending municipal zoning ordinances and permitting processes. In the first article of a series on accelerating heat pump adoption, SPUR recommends four zoning code strategies.

Bay Area residents are keenly aware of the threat of sea level rise as the planet warms — but most of us know far less about the impacts of groundwater rise. In the Bay Area, those impacts will be felt long before sea level rise causes overland flooding. That’s one of the takeaways of a new SPUR case study that examines how one Bay Area community, East Palo Alto, would likely be affected in the absence of adaptation efforts. We spoke with author Sarah Atkinson about her findings.