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Global Warming - Impact Zones

Impact Zone - U.S. California

U.S. California

California enacting solutions to global warming

California is leading the charge for meaningful action on global warming here in the United States. It has passed some of the most ambitious global warming legislation in the country. It has increased energy efficiency while growing their economy. And it has done so because Californians see the threats of increased wildfires, decreased snowpack, and rising sea-levels as immediate and significant.

 

Varied climate means varied impacts


From towering redwoods in the north to traffic-filled freeways in the south, California isn’t just the largest state economy in the United States, it’s also a state with a varied climate that experiences several effects of global warming.

California is already experiencing warmer winters and springs. If greenhouse gas emissions continue at business-as-usual rates, California warming could reach an additional 10.5 degrees Fahrenheit by 2100. Snowpack in California’s mountains is melting up to a month sooner than in the recent past and less snow is accumulating at lower and mid altitudes. Warmer weather coupled with less water is a dangerous combination for the state’s agricultural industry, a significant part of California’s economy. As California’s climate warms, the range for growing many fruits and vegetables will shrink, while the range for invasive species and pests will expand.

Wildfires, especially those often seen on the news in Southern California, have been more frequent in the past few decades, because of warming temperatures, drier climate and less snowmelt which means lower stream flow.

California has already seen a 7 inch increase in sea level over the last 150 years, threatening the state’s famous beaches and oceanfront residents with erosion and increased vulnerability to storms.

 

Leading the charge

In 2004, California established regulations to reduce global warming pollution from new cars and trucks by 30 percent when fully phased in. Since then, 14 states have adopted the California regulations. Although California asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for the necessary waiver to implement the regulations in December 2005, the EPA has indicated it will not make a decision on the waiver until December 2007. In 2004, the automakers sued the state to prevent the regulations from going into effect. That trial is still ongoing.

In September 2006, the landmark Global Warming Solutions Act, the country's first comprehensive global warming legislation with an enforceable cap on global warming emissions, became law in California. The state is now obligated to reduce heat-trapping emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 with a long term goal of reducing emissions 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.

At the same time, the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Performance Standard for Major Power Plant Investments also became law. This legislation requires that long-term electricity generation investments to come from clean energy that emits little to no global warming pollution. This helps ensure that the electricity generation sector will be environmentally sustainable as California moves to greatly reduce its global warming pollution.

Reducing energy demand and generating on-site, carbon-free energy will be crucial components of meeting California’s global warming reduction goals. Leading by example, the state has required all new or renovated state buildings to meet LEED Silver or higher green building standards and established an overall goal for all state buildings to be 20 percent more efficient by 2015. California’s “Million Solar Roofs” law came into effect on January 1, 2007. It requires that homebuilders offer solar panels as a standard option for new homebuyers and expands net-metering and solar rebate programs across the state with the aim of creating a million new solar roofs in California during the next ten years.

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