Gov. Jerry Brown has issued new greenhouse gas reduction targets for the state on Wednesday – targets that would, by the year 2030, roll back emissions to 40 percent below what they were in 1990.
The target, issued via executive order Wednesday, corresponds to targets set by the European Union last year. The Brown administration called the measure the most aggressive of any government in North America.
“With this order, California sets a very high bar for itself and other states and nations, but it’s one that must be reached – for this generation and generations to come,” Brown said in a prepared statement.
Brown discussed the new policy in Los Angeles Wednesday morning.
“I’ve set a very high bar, but it’s a bar we must meet,” he told a crowd of hundreds at a climate change conference in Los Angeles. “It’s a bar not only for California, but it’s a goal for other states, for the United States as a whole, and for other nations around the world.”
Brown’s announcement was celebrated by environmental leaders around the world. “"California's announcement is a realization and a determination that will gladly resonate with other inspiring actions within the United States and around the globe," Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, said in a statement.
Closer to home, Senate leader Kevin De León also praised the governor’s announcement.
"Today’s executive order from Gov. Brown sets new carbon reduction goals that exemplify California’s global leadership on climate change," he said in a statement. "As with our state’s landmark cap-and-trade system, the Legislature will now create the framework to reach these goals."