It is now widely accepted by both the scientific community and most governments that to stabilize the world’s climate at no more than a 2 degree Centigrade temperature increase (often expressed not more than 450-500 parts per million concentration of CO2 equivalents in the atmosphere) emissions must decline.
Meeting this objective requires that global GHG emissions must be cut back to at least 1990 levels by 2020 and at least 80% below that by 2050. Given the scale of this challenge, bold actions need to be implemented in order to initiate an emissions trajectory that leads to deep reductions. Establishing GHG reduction targets is one such action, and in fact is critical to launching a state plan to reduce emissions. Many states have set targets and more are in the process of taking this critical and necessary step to establish a meaningful climate action program.
The Climate Policy Program is no longer active at New America. This resource can now be found at seventhgenerationadvisors.org.
