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Northeastern Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI)
Seven Northeastern states have signed on to the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a historic multi-state agreement that takes great strides toward reducing carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to global warming.
The states that signed this agreement are: Vermont, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Delaware, Maine, and Connecticut
The agreement, the first of its kind in the United States, sets an important precedent for future climate change policies across the United States and internationally.
RGGI sets an exemplary precedent to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from power plants using a market-based system at little to no cost to electricity consumers.
By turning emission reductions into a marketable asset, RGGI creates incentives for companies to invest in emission reduction technologies and gives businesses the flexibility to meet emission reduction goals at the lowest costs.
Over the past 50 years, The Nature Conservancy has invested billions of dollars in nature conservation across the country and around the globe. But these investments, as well as those of the federal government and private land owners, are in jeopardy because of climate change.
Changing weather and temperatures patterns could spell the extinction of many plant and animal species, rendering years of on-the-ground conservation work meaningless.
Because climate change poses one of the greatest long-term threats to biodiversity, The Nature Conservancy worked with policy makers and other stakeholders to establish a model rule for RGGI that will require significant emission reductions in the Northeast.
Climate change picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Photo © Steve Eisenhauer/TNC (Malaga Lake, New Jersey).
