California released a very ambitious climate plan despite the vision that the Trump administration has on the matter. The plan was signed on September 2016, and it expects to cut off carbon emissions by 40 percent over 1990 levels by 2030.
Maybe Obama’s plan on climate change won’t be continued by Trump on a federal level. However, California has decided to continue the fight against climate change in spite of the skepticism there is in the oval office. Some of the strategies to cut carbon emissions include adding 4.2 million zero-emission vehicles to the roads and reducing the emissions generated by the state’s refinery sector.
“Climate change is impacting California now, and we need to continue to take bold and effective action to address it head on to protect and improve the quality of life in California,” Mary Nichols, chair of the California Air Resources Board, said in a statement.
California’s plan in the face of a science-denying federal government
On January 20th, few minutes after Donald Trump took the oath as the 45th President of the United States, the new White House website debuted showing no sign or mention of climate change as a problem for the administration. There was no plan for creating renewables or emission goals. This has been highly criticized by scientists, climate change advocators and citizens.
However, it wasn’t that shocking since Donald Trump has publicly said that he does not believe in such a thing as climate change, even saying it was something created by the Chinese to reduce America’s productivity because they won’t stop using coal and other fossil fuels as the U.S was planning to do. Indeed, Trump’s vision will roll back environmental regulations.
Despite this situation, California won’t back down its fight against climate change. Therefore, while Trump was making history on inauguration day, so was California, as its authorities released their plan to reduce carbon emissions in the state. They want to cut by 40 percent the carbon emissions over the 1990 levels by 2030.
The plan became law in September 2016. They say it is very important to follow the plan because California is being affected by climate change and contamination. They also say that beyond the reduction of the emissions, smog, and pollution to improve the lives of the California citizens, the plan is set to promote innovation, the creation of new jobs, the development of the clean technology sector and an improvement in the state’s economy in general.
The most ambitious climate goals in the history of North America
California expects 4.2 zero-emissions cars to be added to the roads, as well the state will strengthen the vehicle emission standards and it is planning to reduce by 20 percent the greenhouse gasses emitted by the refinery sector.
The state has already the widest electric vehicle options in the US. The state’s Clean Energy Air Act shows that the state was regulating air pollution even before the EPA was established as a federal agency.
Gov. Jerry Brown has been one of the biggest critics of Trump’s policies. As well, he is known as one of the most interested governors on environmental progress. He said in December that California would continue striving for the environmental goals even if Trump chooses to cut funding for federal climate programs and research.
“We’ve got the scientists, we’ve got the lawyers, and we’re ready to fight,” Brown said at the American Geophysical Union Conference in San Francisco. “Whatever Washington thinks they are doing, California is the future.”
Source: Think Progress