California launches most ambitious climate targets in North America
Governor Jerry Brown's executive order aims to reduce the states GHG emissions by 40 per cent below 1990 levels by 2030
California Governor Jerry Brown issued an ambitious executive order on Wednesday that aims to reduce the states greenhouse gas emissions by 40 per cent below 1990 levels by 2030.
Four-term Governor Brown called it the most aggressive emissions reduction target by any North American government in history.
Under Brown’s leadership, California has made impressive steps to combat climate change, which has impacted the state with severe water shortages.
Brown’s new GHG reduction target is even more ambitious than the Obama administration’s, which is aiming to slash carbon dioxide emissions by 28 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030.
According to the announcement, the new plan falls between the state’s 2020 goal of reducing GHGs to 1990 levels, and a long-term 2050 goal of reducing emissions by 80 per cent under 1990 levels.
The targets are also designed to meet the goal to limit global warming to below 2°C as well as global climate change mitigation targets, with nations preparing for the key United Nations climate change conference in Paris at the end of 2015.
California has again been hit by a year of drought, and water supplies are in especially short supply with climate models predicting this could become the new normal for the state.
Brown and state lawmakers approved a $1 billion emergency drought relief plan in Mrach which was the second such effort in as many years.
Brown has also voiced his ambitions for California to use 50 per cent renewable energy by 2030.
In statement, the World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, said: “Four consecutive years of exceptional drought has brought home the harsh reality of rising global temperatures to the communities and businesses of California. There can be no substitute for aggressive national targets to reduce harmful greenhouse emissions, but the decision today by Governor Brown to set a 40 per cent reduction target for 2030 is an example of climate leadership that others must follow.”
The new order also calls for further climate change adaptation efforts, by including climate impacts state planning and investment decisions.