Well, Trump and his gloomy cohort of pollutionists may be doing everything they can to destroy the environment, but at least there are others who are continuing to save us.
Originally shared by John Baez
The California effect
Before California started its cap-and-trade program, it was the 8th-largest economy in the world and the 12th-largest emitter of greenhouse gases. Now it’s the 6th-largest economy and the 19th-largest emitter.
Here’s how it works. Each year California sets a limit on greenhouse gas emissions – that’s the cap. It allocates or auctions off permits to polluting companies. Companies that reduce their emissions below their allowed level can sell their permits to other companies – that’s the trade. This gives them an incentive to do better.
Each year, the state reduces the cap by 3%. This will gradually make the permits more expensive. By 2030, the goal is for greenhouse gas emissions to be 40% less than than in 1990.
This has lots of effects, some of which spread across the US.
Energy companies can reduce their emissions by switching from coal to natural gas and investing in clean energy like wind and solar. Manufacturers can improve their energy efficiency. And all businesses can offset up to 8% of their emissions by buying credits from organizations that grow forests and do other things to soak up CO2.
The last part is especially interesting, because these organizations don’t need to be in California. This map shows you where they are.
Across the US, more than 300 projects in 30 states are coming online thanks to the California effect. They’ve already sucked up 69 million tonnes of CO2.
You can read about some examples here:
https://www.nature.org/magazine/archives/the-california-effect.xml
One is the Clinch Valley Conservation Forestry Program in Virginia. It was started by Stuart Land & Cattle, one of the largest cattle farms east of the Mississippi River, which owns a lot of land. It now protects 22,000 acres of forest.
So: states don’t need to wait for the US federal government to catch up. They can start doing good things now.
Much of my post here was paraphrased from the above article, which was written by Brendan Borrell for the magazine of the Nature Conservancy, of which I’m a member.
In case you like numbers:
From 2000 to 2015, California’s annual greenhouse gas emissions dropped 6%, from 467 to 440 million tonnes CO2 equivalent. It reached a peak of 482 in 2008, right before the economic meltdown. Then it crashed… but as the economy has recovered, the greenhouse gases have stayed down, actually dropping a bit further. So, from 2008 to 2015, greenhouse gas emissions dropped 9%. Emissions per GDP have been dropping more or less steadily since 2001. You can see this data in graphs here:
https://www.arb.ca.gov/cc/inventory/pubs/reports/2000_2015/ghg_inventory_trends_00-15.pdf
and the numbers in various reports here:
https://www.arb.ca.gov/cc/inventory/data/data.htm
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