Enviro Coalition Hails State's Agressive Plan on Climate Change
Poll Finds Californians Also Want a Strong yet Smart Roll-out of AB 32
SACRAMENTO, CA — June 26, 2008 — A coalition of three leading California conservation groups working to combat the growing crisis of global warming – Audubon California, Defenders of Wildlife and The Nature Conservancy – applaud the proposal by the California Air Resources Board to implement AB 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, a precedent-setting road map for addressing climate change.
"Today the Air Resources Board has taken important steps to make the state’s requirement to reduce emissions to 1990 levels a reality," said Michelle Passero, senior climate policy advisor for The Nature Conservancy.
“Every day we do nothing, the long-range impacts of global warming get worse,” said Dan Taylor, Audubon California’s director of public policy. “We’re impressed that the Air Resources Board has chosen to meet the challenges of climate change head-on with real strategies to reduce the state’s emissions and urge the state to quickly execute this plan.”
The plan includes two of the coalition’s recommendations which utilize the role of California’s forests to help the state effectively reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. These include an emissions cap and trade program and a "no-net-loss" of carbon from California’s forestlands, suggesting mitigation of forestland development to offset the loss of carbon due to deforestation.
"California has once again demonstrated how forests play a key role in the fight against climate change," added Louis Blumberg, director of climate change for The Nature Conservancy. "With deforestation contributing to 20 percent of emissions worldwide, protecting our forests to prevent carbon emissions is a critical importance.”
Recent research indicates California voters are strongly supportive of the state taking action to fight global warming, and are particularly supportive of provisions that protect forests and maximize their positive contribution toward reducing global warming.
Next 10, a nonpartisan research group that released a poll of Californians' views on the environment, found that California voters see global warming as a very pressing concern and are eager to see state government take strong but thoughtful action to address it. Of those polled, 88 percent of the respondents said they strongly support protecting forests and natural areas that naturally remove global warming pollution from the air, and 83 percent polled say reducing global warming will require action from everyone, and that they are ready to make some changes.
As the details of the plan are developed, the coalition looks forward to working with the Air Resources Board to secure a dedicated funding source to help wildlife adapt to climate change.
“Climate change will have unavoidable impacts on us all," said Kim Delfino, the California program director for Defenders of Wildlife. “We are ready to work with the state to ensure that our people, wildlife, fish, plants and the natural systems that support them can cope with the devastating effects of climate change.”
The Nature Conservancy is a leading conservation organization working around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people. To date, the Conservancy and its more than one million members have been responsible for the protection of more than 15 million acres in the United States and have helped preserve more than 102 million acres in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific. Visit The Nature Conservancy on the Web at www.nature.org.
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