Successes
Recent successes in Global Warming include:
Federal Policy
The world's scientists agree that the window to prevent the worst effects of global warming is closing. The United States must act quickly to reduce its carbon emissions at least 80 percent by 2050, but Congress has yet to act. In 2008, UCS worked with allies in Congress to craft such a policy, and bolstered these efforts by organizing and distributing a statement signed by more than 1,700 prominent U.S. scientists and economists calling for the needed reductions. We also kept the issue in the public eye by inviting aspiring writers and photographers to submit entries for an online book—Thoreau's Legacy: American Stories about Global Warming—to be published in partnership with Penguin Classics.
Regional Policies
We used our 2007 report Confronting Climate Change in the Northeast to educate policy makers and mobilize activists in an effort to ensure successful implementation of the nation's first program limiting carbon emissions from power plants (which is now in effect). Our 2008 follow-up, Climate Change in Pennsylvania, supported legislation to cut that state's emissions and strengthened support for federal climate policy among Pennsylvania's members of Congress.
In the Midwest, our participation in several state advisory groups helped secure strong climate policy recommendations, and we played a lead role in developing a regional cap-and-trade program. We also helped win legislation in Minnesota to fund a study of cap-and-trade auctions, thereby providing lessons for all such programs. In the West, we helped strengthen proposals for cap-and-trade programs in California and the Western Climate Initiative (a collaborative effort among seven states and Canadian provinces).
International Policy
Our report Out of the Woods supported international climate negotiations by describing the important role an agreement reducing tropical deforestation can play in curbing global warming. This research provides a realistic estimate of the climate benefits such an agreement can achieve.
