A welcome change in climate
On Emissions Reduction, Locally and Globally
The clock is speeding up on climate change, but two big events this week may mark a major turnaround.
After a long legal battle, California’s Air Resources Board restored an ambitious rule to slash carbon emissions in transportation fuels by 10 percent by 2020.
In Washington for an important state visit, Chinese President Xi Jinpeng said his country will launch a national cap-and-trade system in 2017 for carbon emissions, similar to California’s groundbreaking program.
China is now the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, so its announcement is a gamechanger. President Obama also unveiled a plan for deeper U.S. emissions cuts through 2025, but Xi doesn’t have a recalcitrant Congress to hold him back.
Still, Obama’s new target — cutting U.S. emissions 26 to 28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025 — is ambitious enough to reinvigorate the coming global climate change discussions in Paris. The fact that the world’s two biggest emitters, China and the U.S., have pledged serious cuts says that this is an issue that every nation must tackle right now, not in some distant future.
Meanwhile, California is providing a real-life model for the rest of the world.
California first adopted the cleaner fuel standard in 2009. But the rule was put on hold when fuel producers sued, and it took years for the courts to have their final say on the matter. (The U.S. Supreme Court finally finished the fight when it refused to take up a 2013 appeals court ruling that upheld the fuel standard.)
Now that the state’s regulators are finally free to enforce the law, it will enable California to make even more progress. California has about 30 million vehicles, which account for about 40 percent of the state’s emissions.
The rule will cost Californians some money — $24 extra per year per typical commuter in 2017, the board expects. But one thing that critics often fail to mention is that climate change comes with costs, too, and over time those costs will be much steeper than $24 per person per year.
And soon, California won’t have to shoulder this burden on its own.
The cost of combatting climate change should lessen as more countries follow through on their commitments. Companies will find it far easier and more lucrative to scale clean energy options and clean fuel technology as more and more places demand them.
As the rest of the world takes inspiration from California’s leadership on this issue, President Obama should follow the example of Gov. Jerry Brown. Although he had a big setback this summer when a bill to slash statewide petroleum use failed to get past the state legislature, Brown has vowed to push forward using his executive authority. Obama can still get plenty done without Congress, and the planet is depending on it.