California has cut its climate-warming emissions by an average of 1 percent a year over the past decade, even as the economy has grown, according to data released by state agencies last week.
California is on pace to meet the goal of its Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, which pledged to reduce the state’s greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.
Governor Jerry Brown signed an even more ambitious law last year requiring that California’s emissions fall to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030. To meet that target, the Golden State would have to slash its greenhouse gas emissions three times faster than it has been, the Los Angeles Times notes.
The world will keep close watch of how California fares in mitigating climate change. After President Donald Trump decided to pull the United States out of the Paris Agreement, Brown signaled his disagreement last week by signing California onto an international commitment to reducing greenhouse gasses, called the Under2 Memorandum of Understanding.
