Executive Order S-3-05
The US Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, signed by 205 mayors as of Feb 17, mandate that participating cities meet the Kyoto Protocol goal of 7% below 1990 emission levels by 2012. An ambitious goal, and one of the building blocks for my thesis, but it turns out that California has an even greater ambition.
Citing impacts to “water supply, public health, agriculture, the coastline, and forestry,” Executive Order S-3-05 mandates meeting the following Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emission reduction targets for California:
...by 2010, reduce GHG emissions to 2000 levels; by 2020, reduce GHG emissions to 1990 levels; by 2050, reduce GHG emissions to 80 percent below 1990 levels.
This executive order was signed into law in June 2005, and I suppose it’s no coincidence that the California Climate Change Center and Center for Clean Air Policy reports just came out.
What I find interesting about this executive order is that Governor Schwarzenegger has effectively declared climate change a threat to the state’s economy and future well-being. Which is a roundabout way of saying climate change is a huge opportunity. As I tend to think (and as others have said), as California goes, so goes the nation. Or as Warren Buffet has said: “If California has trouble, the country has troubles. If California prospers, the country prospers.”
As the LA Times says:
California is one of the 10 largest economies in the world and the 12th-largest producer of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, which are byproducts of industry, agriculture and motor vehicle use.
One benefit of working on this thesis has been my shift in mindset: threats are now opportunities. Silicon Valley tech might be big, but innovation related to climate change action will be even bigger and certainly more diverse.