California Leads the Nation with the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006

Not only is California vulnerable to the negative effects of climate change, but the state is also the world’s 12th largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions.

Recognizing that the state has a moral and practical imperative to reverse our contribution to global warming, Speaker Fabian Núñez and then-Assemblymember Fran Pavley authored a landmark climate change bill, Assembly Bill 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006.

AB 32 will reduce carbon emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2020. That's a 25 percent reduction. And by 2050, we will reduce emissions to 80 percent below 1990 levels.

AB 32 authorizes the use of regulatory approaches and allows for the potential use of market mechanisms in reducing greenhouse gas emissions -- including banking, borrowing, cap and trade, and auctions.

Under the direction of the state’s top air agency, the California Air Resources Board (CARB), the state is required to study these approaches and make recommendations on which combination of regulation and market approaches works best.

In 2008, CARB will begin a mandatory program that will require industries to begin reporting their emissions of carbon dioxide. They will also establish a cap on greenhouse gas emissions.

From 2008 until 2012 (when the actual cap begins to take force), a serious outreach effort will be undertaken to educate industries on the reductions and how best to achieve them.

From 2012 on to 2020, industry will begin to implement efforts to reduce their carbon output and take advantage of established market mechanisms.

Combined, this effort will bring carbon emissions down to 1990 levels -- and the reductions will continue.