Our Recent Global Warming Accomplishments
UCS documented the health risks of global warming, helped California lead the way in clean energy, and supported efforts to reduce tropical deforestation.
Revealed the devastating health risks of ground-level ozone if global warming emissions go unchecked.
Our report Climate Change and Your Health: Rising Temperatures, Worsening Ozone Pollution documents how global warming will likely worsen air pollution and could lead to 2.8 million more occurrences of acute respiratory symptoms such as asthma, thousands of additional hospitalizations for seniors and infants, and some $5.4 billion in additional health care expenses—all within the next decade.
Unveiled two online tools that encourage visitors to become actively involved in climate solutions.
The redesigned Climate Hot Map allows visitors to examine the visible impact of global warming on more than 70 locations throughout the world, along with region-specific solutions. The Clean Air Act Ticker depicts the ongoing economic benefits of this landmark, but threatened, legislation.
Provided leadership in California on renewable energy, clean jobs.
For over a decade, UCS has been a lead group advocating for an aggressive California renewable energy standard.
By providing technical expertise on the state’s complex electricity sector, building and coordinating support from a broad range of stakeholders, meeting regularly with leading elected officials, engaging the media to report on the issue, and activating our own members to express their will, UCS was successful in matching our technical analysis and citizen activism with our policy success.
With the help and leadership of UCS, California’s Renewables Portfolio Standard (RPS) was signed into law in April 2011.
Protected forests and the climate.
UCS played a critical role in the global effort to protect rain forests. Since the turn of the century, global warming emissions from tropical deforestation have declined by more than a billion tons per year.
UCS provided important information to policymakers and businesses to help them reduce both deforestation and emissions:
Recipes for Success: Solutions for Deforestation-Free Vegetable Oils shows that the vegetable oil market and forests are currently in conflict—but that this does not have to be the case. This report, the first in a series aimed at helping businesses protect tropical forests, provides solutions for companies that produce, buy, or use vegetable oils.
Tropical Deforestation and Global Warming: A Solution explains how tropical deforestation contributes to global warming, and how actions to protect tropical forests can reduce global warming while providing many additional benefits.
Our comprehensive report, The Root of the Problem: What’s Driving Tropical Deforestation Today?, frames up the current policy conversation on tropical forest protection by demonstrating that commercial agriculture and timber enterprises are the major forces behind tropical deforestation.
Support our work.
For more than 20 years, UCS has worked with leading experts to educate U.S. decision makers and the public about global warming, and practical solutions at an international, national, regional, and state level. You can help support this work:
