Schwarzenegger issues statement
on Great Britain's proposal
to reduce greenhouse gases

From the Office of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger

March 13, 2007

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today issued the following statement regarding the introduction of legislation in Great Britain to reduce greenhouse gases. Announced by Prime Minister Tony Blair, the legislative proposal is similar to California's Global Warming Solutions Act, signed into law by Governor Schwarzenegger last year.

"I would like to congratulate Prime Minister Tony Blair for taking this historic step to do in Great Britain at the national level what California is doing at the state level. The Prime Minister has been an inspiration to California as we have taken our own historic steps to fight greenhouse gases with the Global Warming Solutions Act. His leadership has shown us that we can protect the environment without harming the economy. Great Britain has already successfully reduced its greenhouse gas emissions below 1990 levels while at the same time growing their economy by 38 percent.

"California's economy stands to greatly benefit from the wave of new businesses and jobs created by the emerging technologies and different approaches to fighting climate change. By harnessing market forces, we will reduce carbon emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2020. And by 2050, we will reduce emissions to 80 percent below 1990 levels.

"California is proudly partnering with Great Britain to fight climate change and I look forward to advancing our efforts and linking our regional trading schemes so we can create a global carbon market.

Last July, Prime Minister Blair and I took the unprecedented step of signing an agreement between California and the United Kingdom to create an international partnership to fight against global warming. Our agreement includes efforts to evaluate and implement market-based mechanisms to spur innovation, deepen our understanding of the economics of climate change, collaborate on technology research and enhance linkages between our scientific communities.

"Since beginning the implementation of California's Global Warming Solutions Act, we have introduced the Low Carbon Fuel Standard, which is a groundbreaking new policy to help us achieve significant reductions in transportation emissions. The plan will require those who sell fuel in California to reduce their carbon intensity by 10 percent by the year 2020. The new standard will help reduce our dependency on foreign oil and by the year 2020, this strategy will displace 20 percent of our gasoline consumption, more than triple the size of the state's renewable fuels market, and boost to 7 million the number of alternative fuel or hybrid vehicles on our roads.

"Global warming impacts all of us and it is imperative that as many states and nations join together to tackle this global problem. In addition to working with northeastern states and provinces in Canada, California recently partnered with four other western states to create the Western Regional Climate Action Initiative, a joint strategy to fight global warming."

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