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?s* ' BENDER READY-MIX CONCRETE MANUFACTURING PROJECT Initial Study/Mitigated Negative Declaration ' 4.7 GREENHOUSE GASES I Legs Than Would the project:' Potentially `Significant ' Less Than No Significant, Impact With Significant Impact Mitigation Impact Impact Incorporated a. Generate greenhouse gas emissions, either directly or indirectly, that may have a significant impact on the ? environment? b. Conflict with an applicable plan, policy or regulation adopted for the purpose of reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases? ? a) Generate greenhouse gas emissions, either directly or indirectly, that may have a significant impact on the environment? Less Than Significant Impact. GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE California is a substantial contributor of global greenhouse gases (GHGs), emitting over 400 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year.' Climate studies indicate that California is likely to see an increase of three to four degrees Fahrenheit (°F) over the next century. Methane is also an important GHG that potentially contributes to global climate change. GHGs are global in their effect, which is to increase the earth's ability to absorb heat in the atmosphere. As primary GHGs have a long lifetime in the atmosphere, accumulate over time, and are generally well-mixed, their impact on the atmosphere is mostly independent of the point of emission. The impact of anthropogenic activities on global climate change is apparent in the observational record. Air trapped by ice has been extracted from core samples taken from polar ice sheets to determine the global atmospheric variation of C02, methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N20) from before the start of industrialization (approximately 1750), to over 650,000 years ago. For that period, it was found that C02 concentrations ranged from 180 parts per million (ppm) to 300 ppm. For the period from approximately 1750 to the present, global C02 concentrations increased from a pre-industrialization ' period concentration of 280 ppm to 379 ppm in 2005, with the 2005 value far exceeding the upper end of the pre-industrial period range. REGULATIONS AND SIGNIFICANCE CRITERIA The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) constructed several emission trajectories of GHGs needed to stabilize global temperatures and climate change impacts. It concluded that a ' stabilization of GHGs at 400 to 450 ppm carbon dioxide-equivalent (C02eq) concentration is required to keep global mean warming below two degrees Celsius (°C), which in turn is assumed to be necessary to avoid dangerous climate change. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger issued Executive Order S-3-05 in June 2005, which established the following GHG emission reduction targets: 1 California Energy Commission, Inventory of California Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks: 1990 to 2004, 2006. t JULY 2011 4.7-1 GREENHOUSE GASES 31A-57