Coastal resources: Climate Ready Program and coastal climate change adaptation, infrastructure, and readiness program.

(1) Existing law establishes the State Coastal Conservancy with prescribed powers and authorizes the conservancy to address the impacts and potential impacts of climate change on resources within its jurisdiction. Existing law authorizes the conservancy to undertake, among other things, projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, address extreme weather events, sea level rise, storm surge, and other coastal hazards that threaten coastal communities, infrastructure, and natural resources. Existing law authorizes the conservancy to award grants to public agencies and nonprofit organizations for these authorized activities. This bill would recast these provisions as the Climate Ready Program to be administered by the conservancy as described above. (2) Existing law establishes the Ocean Protection Council in state government and requires the council to, among other things, coordinate activities of state agencies that are related to the protection and conservation of coastal waters and ocean ecosystems to improve the effectiveness of state efforts to protect ocean resources within existing fiscal limitations, consistent with specified provisions of the California Ocean Protection Act. This bill would require the council, subject to the availability of funding, to develop and implement a coastal climate adaptation, infrastructure, and readiness program to, among other things, recommend best practices and strategies to improve the climate change resiliency of the state's coastal communities, infrastructure, and habitat and collaborate with certain entities and scientists to facilitate information sharing regarding coastal climate change adaptation, infrastructure, and readiness, including providing information to the Office of Planning and Research to be considered for inclusion into a certain clearinghouse for climate adaptation information. (3) This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 31113 of the Public Resources Code proposed by AB 65 to be operative only if this bill and AB 65 are enacted and this bill is enacted last.