California’s Global Warming Solutions Act

In 2006 California passed Assembly Bill 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act which wrote into law landmark environmental protections. The Global Warming Solutions Act brings California into near compliance with the Kyoto Protocol provisions. It requires that by 2020 the state reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels – roughly 25 percent of the current estimates.i

The Global Warming Solutions Act requires adoption of regulations by 2011 to achieve the most technologically feasible and cost-effective reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. The law includes market and alternative compliance mechanisms such as cap-and-trade solutions to help offset these emissions.i

This is something we owe our children and our grandchildren,” said Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger at the bill’s signing.ii

Clean energy businesses have thrived since the bill became law. California green jobs have grown 10 times faster than the statewide average, employing a half-million workers across the state.iii

California’s Global Warming Solutions Act made the state the leader in clean technology. Sixty percent of all North American venture capital investment on clean tech is spent on California businesses.iv

i California Air Resources Board
ii http://gov.ca.gov/index.php?/press-release/4111/
iii Employment Development Department – Labor Market Information Division, California’s Green Economy, April, 2010.
iv http://cleantech.com