
California Gov. Jerry Brown met with international climate leaders, including fellow summit co-chair, China’s Special Representative for Climate Change Minister Xie Zhenhua, on Tuesday – the eve of the Global Climate Action Summit – and highlighted the importance of California’s landmark cap-and-trade program in keynote remarks at an event co-hosted by the by the European Commission, Government of Canada and state of California.
“This is a global challenge that requires a global response with many, many elements. And one of those elements is carbon pricing. Carbon pricing is an elegant pathway that produces real results, both in reduced emissions and in increased revenues to be directed at a more environmentally friendly economy,” said Gov. Brown during his keynote remarks at the Carbon Pricing Delivering Climate Ambition event. “You have to be warriors and innovators and missionaries to keep at it. Climate change, global warming waits for no one.”
Tuesday’s event brought together senior government officials, business leaders and academics from around the world to discuss the key aspects of carbon pricing, which continues to gain momentum as an important tool for addressing climate change.
California’s well-established cap-and-trade program, strengthened and extended to 2030 last year by Gov. Brown and linked with Quebec’s program in 2014, sets a declining limit on carbon pollution and creates a market to achieve the state’s bold emission reduction targets in the most cost-effective manner.
Gov. Brown also blasted the Trump Administration's proposal to roll back methane regulation at Tuesday’s event.
Later in the day, Gov. Brown met Minister Xie Zhenhua, who is leading China’s 120-plus person delegation at the Summit – building on significant diplomatic and environmental exchanges between California and China.
Gov. Brown and Minister Xie discussed China’s progress in meeting its goals under the Paris Agreement and California and China’s efforts to strengthen their climate initiatives through subnational collaboration.
Last year, Gov. Brown and Minister Xie hosted a dialogue between Californian and Chinese policymakers and business leaders in Beijing during the governor's California-China Climate Mission, and met at the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Bonn, Germany, where the governor served as special advisor for states and regions.
Additionally on Tuesday, Gov. Brown met with Governors’ Climate and Forests Task Force members from Acre, Brazil; San Martin and Ucayali, Peru; North Kalimantan, Indonesia; Caqueta, Colombia; and Pastaza, Ecuador, as well as Norway's Minister of the Environment Ola Elvestuen.
The governor also met with indigenous community leaders from across the globe to discuss the task force’s commitment to working with local communities to develop strategies to address climate change and deforestation.
Gov. Brown delivered welcoming remarks at the National Governors Association’s Water Policy Institute conference, where top state officials from across the nation gathered to exchange best practices and discuss new technologies and policies for the wise management of water resources.
Reaffirming California’s global climate leadership in the lead-up to the summit, Gov. Brown on Monday signed legislation setting a 100 percent clean electricity goal for the state, and issued an executive order establishing a new target to achieve carbon neutrality – both by 2045.
Late last week, Gov. Brown also signed legislation to block new federal offshore oil drilling along California’s coast and announced the state’s opposition to the federal government’s plan to expand oil drilling on public lands in California. The entirety of the state’s coast has been off-limits to new oil and gas leases for more than 30 years, and the state has not issued a lease for offshore oil or gas production since 1968.
