The world is waiting to see what’s going to come from discussions among our leaders in Copenhagen on the most pressing issue of our time – climate change. Have you thought about what the U.S. is bringing to the table?
While D.C. has yet to pass any climate change legislation (though there are bills currently moving in the House and Senate!), California has taken much leadership on the issue. It’s ideas and policy based off of California’s trendsetting laws that have influenced Washington on domestic policy. And these are the ideas that President Obama is now taking to the international bargaining table.
This is great! But it could have been greater. Unfortunately, one of the leading ideas for addressing climate change is cap and trade. Cap and trade would be better as just cap – placing a maximum limit on the amount of CO2 emissions allowable by industry. This would result in true reductions in CO2 emissions at a relatively quick rate as industry moves toward efficiency and cleaner technology. Instead, by adding those dangerous words “and trade”, this policy allows for a myriad of problems including:
- non-local reductions in CO2 pollution (think of local communities impacted by the ongoing concentration of pollution thanks to industry being able to “offset” their emissions by contributing money for trees to be planted on the other side of the globe)
- lack of accountability (who’s to say those trees offsetting the pollution are really being planted?)
- lack of proof showing that it works (look at the case of Europe)
For more information on cap and trade, check out this quick and clever animation on the topic.
What does this have to do with the governor’s race? Well, California would have had climate policy based on just a cap (AB 32 – Pavley ‘06) had Governor Schwarzenegger not issued an executive order adding the trade clause shortly after signing the bill into law. And, this year when environmentalists and social justice advocates worked with the legislature to ensure that the cap and trade would at least occur within California’s borders to achieve local pollution reduction, Schwarzenegger vetoed the bill (AB 1404 – De León, M. Perez, and Carter).
With the amount of influence that California wields on the international scene, we need to make sure that our next governor doesn’t water down policy and run interference with the implementation of policy and programs addressing climate change.