California Leadership

Earlier this year, California’s Governor Brown issued an executive order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in California 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030 – the most ambitious target in North America and consistent with California’s existing commitment to reduce emissions 80 percent under 1990 levels by 2050.

September 2015 Announcement by California Governor Brown In remarks at the U.S.-China Climate Leaders Summit, California Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. announced the first cities, Los Angeles and Zhenjiang, to endorse the Under 2 MOU climate agreement and the renewal of a landmark pact between California and China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), which oversees China’s efforts to address climate change and much of the government’s economic strategy.

Photo: NBC News image of Lake Fire in California (June 22, 2015)
“Fires are raging and the Sierra Nevada snowpack is the worst it’s been in 500 years,” said Governor Brown. “Yet, GOP presidential candidates, to a person, have failed to respond to the profoundly serious threat that climate change represents to the people of the world.”

Map: Wildfires currently burning in California are plotted on an interactive Google Fire Map.

As the clock ticks for national governments to reach a deal to reduce harmful emissions ahead of the conference in Paris, California’s Governor Brown continues to focus on building and broadening collaboration amongst cities, states and provinces, at the sub-national level. In addition to action on the Under two Memoranda of Understanding, the Governor traveled to the Vatican in Italy and the Climate Summit of the Americas in Toronto, Canada in July to call on the world’s cities, states and provinces to join California in the fight. These efforts build on other international climate change pacts with leaders from Mexico, China, North America, Japan, Israel, and Peru. Governor Brown also helped convene hundreds of world-renowned researchers and scientists to issue a groundbreaking call to action, called the consensus statement, which translates key scientific climate findings from disparate fields into one unified document.

September 20, 2015. Monterey County fires engaged firefighters to battle two massive blazes that together destroyed more than 1,000 structures.