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California sets global example with historic deal to reduce emissions
The state of California is embarking on a ground-breaking effort to curb global warming, following an agreement between Arnold Schwarzenegger, the state's movie star Republican Governor, and the Democrat-dominated state legislature, to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 25 per cent by 2020.
The agreement, the result of months of fractious negotiation and considerable bad blood between Mr Schwarzenegger and his fellow Republicans, sets California far apart from the Bush administration, which has rejected the Kyoto Protocol and questioned the very existence of global warming.
It also opens the way to an outpouring of technological advances in alternative energy in the Golden State - from solar panels on homes and businesses to battery-powered cars and biodiesel trucks.
Like others, Mr Schwarzenegger argues that fighting global warming makes good business as well as environmental sense.
"We can now move forward with developing a market-based system that makes California a world leader in the effort to reduce carbon emissions," the Governor said in a statement. "The success of our system will be an example for other states and nations to follow as the fight against climate change continues. [This deal] strengthens our economy, cleans our environment and once again, establishes California as the leader in environmental protection."
Environmentalists and Democratic leaders with whom Mr Schwarzenegger hashed out the deal on Wednesday were equally ecstatic. California state assembly speaker Fabian Nunez said the deal was "the most important day in my legislative career". Bob Epstein, of the business lobbying group Environmental Entrepreneurs, said: "This is the tipping point in the country's climate-change debate."
More
http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article1223130.ece
It also opens the way to an outpouring of technological advances in alternative energy in the Golden State - from solar panels on homes and businesses to battery-powered cars and biodiesel trucks.
Like others, Mr Schwarzenegger argues that fighting global warming makes good business as well as environmental sense.
"We can now move forward with developing a market-based system that makes California a world leader in the effort to reduce carbon emissions," the Governor said in a statement. "The success of our system will be an example for other states and nations to follow as the fight against climate change continues. [This deal] strengthens our economy, cleans our environment and once again, establishes California as the leader in environmental protection."
Environmentalists and Democratic leaders with whom Mr Schwarzenegger hashed out the deal on Wednesday were equally ecstatic. California state assembly speaker Fabian Nunez said the deal was "the most important day in my legislative career". Bob Epstein, of the business lobbying group Environmental Entrepreneurs, said: "This is the tipping point in the country's climate-change debate."
More
http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article1223130.ece
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It is not just the state of California that is bypassing the authority of the US government to take action on global warming.
The mayors of more than 300 cities across the country have signed a Climate Protection Agreement in which they have pledged to meet the emissions-cutting timetable laid down by the Kyoto Protocol - regardless of what the Bush administration decides.
Some of those cities, such as Seattle, which took the lead on drafting and lobbying for the agreement, are bastions of liberal politics and environmentalism, acting out their ideological convictions. Others, though, such as the exclusive Colorado ski resorts Vail and Aspen, are also motivated by a powerful self-interest. If global warming continues unabated, the Rocky Mountain snowpack will melt and there will be no skiing in Vail, Aspen or anywhere else by the end of this century.
Seattle's Mayor, Greg Nickels, proposed the mayors' agreement whenKyoto came into effect at the start of last year. By June 2005, he had 140 signatories, and the number has more than doubled since.
The goal is to "meet or exceed" the Kyoto target of cutting global warming pollution to 7 per cent below 1990 levels by 2012.
The agreement also contains a 12-point action plan, urging signatory cities to discourage sprawl, promote public transport, car-pooling and bicycle lanes, turn to alternative energy sources including alternative fuels for the municipal vehicle and bus fleet, plant lots of trees and introduce environmental education programmes in schools and community colleges.
More
http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article1223127.ece