California’s Global Leadership on Climate Change Takes Center-Stage in Sacramento

Contact:
Shira Silver, ssilver@edf.org, 202-572-3254

“Governor Schwarzenegger is not the only action hero in the room at today’s event “Global Climate Negotiations: Lessons from California” co-hosted by the USC Schwarzenegger Institute and the California Air Resources Board, which convenes some of the world’s leading actors in the serious reality show that is climate change. The crowd of government, business, finance, and non-profit leaders underscores the fact that climate change is a multidisciplinary issue that requires collective brainpower and concerted action. As California has shown, there is no silver bullet for fighting climate change but we have an arsenal of proven solutions for cutting pollution and building a cleaner, healthier future. 

Climate change is not waiting for the ideological battles in Washington to play out, and thankfully neither is California or so many other states, from New England to the Great Lakes to the Pacific Northwest. As today’s bipartisan event shows, it takes action at the local, state, and regional level to prove environmental solutions can work to stimulate economic growth.

Perhaps California’s biggest lesson for our partners and peers around the globe is that a healthy economy and a healthy environment are not an either/or proposition. California has helped lead America’s economic recovery over the past few years, and our GDP has increased dramatically while pollution has decreased. We can stimulate economic growth and innovation and create a better quality of life for our citizens while cutting pollution and cleaning up the air.

To echo the most famous person in the room today, the air is not a Democratic or Republican resource, clean air is about everybody. The solutions to this existential challenge must include everybody and benefit everybody, and California’s story contains chapter after chapter illustrating how you can do just that.”

-Derek Walker, Associate Vice President, Environmental Defense Fund