Democratic California Gov. Jerry Brown set the nation’s most aggressive target for slashing greenhouse gas emissions Wednesday through an executive order Wednesday.
Brown called for curbing emissions 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030, his office said. The benchmark year is significant given most national measures to combat climate change use a 2005 start date, when emissions were higher and therefore easier to cut below.
“With this order, California sets a very high bar for itself and other states and nations, but it’s one that must be reached — for this generation and generations to come,” Brown said.
The move comes as the Environmental Protection Agency nears completion of its proposed rule to cut power-plant emissions 30 percent below 2005 levels by 2030. States must submit a plan to comply with the rule one year after it’s finalized this summer.
California is the country’s second biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, behind Texas. But Brown said the state, which has an economy-wide cap-and-trade system, is on track to reach its goal of lowering emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.
Brown also set a long-term goal of cutting emissions 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.
Brown said the announcement intends to align the Golden State with national goals set for United Nations climate negotiations that begin Nov. 30 in Paris. President Obama last month committed the United States to reducing national emissions 26 percent below 2005 levels by 2025 as part of those talks. Nations want to strike a framework to govern emissions beyond 2020 in hopes of keeping global temperatures from rising 2 degrees Celsius by 2100.
