California Aims to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions
State on Track to Reduce Emissions to 1990 levels by 2020
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Gov. Edmund Brown Jr. recently issued an executive order to establish a California greenhouse gas reduction target of 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030 — an aggressive benchmark designed to reduce carbon emissions over the next decade and a half.
“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,” said Brown.
This executive action sets the stage for the important work being done on climate change by the legislature. The governor’s executive order aligns California’s greenhouse gas reduction targets with those of leading international governments ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris later this year. The 28-nation European Union, for instance, set the same target for 2030 in October 2014.