The draft plan will not keep global temperatures close to what
scientists say will avoid catastrophe. The world has only ten years
to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 50% if we are to attain the
goal. President Biden has committed the United States to a 50%
reduction by 2030. Yet the draft plan may not achieve even 40% by
2030. The science of climate change requires front-loading our
response. If mitigation pathways are not rapidly activated, much
more expensive and complex adaptation measures will have to be
taken to avoid the impacts of higher levels of global warming on
the Earth system.
California’s goal should be at least an 80% reduction in
emissions by 2030. A former coordinating author of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and Professor of
Sustainability at UC Berkeley, Daniel Kammen, Ph.D., set out a
scientifically backed and feasible program for California in 2021.
It calls for an 80% reduction in emissions by 2030. The draft plan
only aims for an 80% reduction emissions by 2045. The draft
plan’s reliance on carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) or
direct carbon capture (DAC) to balance 20% of our emissions is more
than New York (15%) and far more than the State of Washington
(5%).
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