Global Warming Update - Summer 2009

Contents

  1. Summary
  2. Historic Climate Action in the U.S. House
  3. A Tough Road Ahead in the U.S. Senate
  4. Tropical Forests and Climate Initiative
  5. California Closes in on Climate Loophole

Summary
In recent months, tens of thousands of UCS activists urged Congress and the Obama administration to act quickly to establish a comprehensive, science-based climate policy. In June, those efforts paid off when the U.S. House of Representatives passed a historic climate and clean energy bill, laying the groundwork to curb global warming pollution and transition to a cleaner energy future. Now, with opposition ramping up like never before, our activists will play a critical role in ensuring that their senators defend, strengthen, and pass science-based climate legislation this year. We’re also working to ensure that climate legislation addresses the issue of tropical deforestation, which accounts for nearly 20 percent of the world’s heat-trapping emissions. In California, legislators moved one step closer to closing a loophole in the state’s ambitious plans to cut global warming pollution.
 
Historic Climate Action in the U.S. House
In June, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the American Clean Energy and Security Act, a comprehensive climate bill that would establish a nationwide plan to rein in global warming pollution, reduce our dependence on oil, and create clean energy jobs. What's more, in a clear victory for science, the bill includes key provisions ensuring these policies can be strengthened in the future in response to emerging climate science—provisions UCS helped write and win support for.
 
UCS activists helped win House passage by urging their lawmakers and the Obama administration to support strong climate action, sending tens of thousands of letters, making hundreds of calls, and attending dozens of town hall meetings.

A Tough Road Ahead in the U.S. Senate
While the House bill represents a critical step forward, it did not include everything we wanted. Now, as the bill moves on to the Senate, we’ll once again be up against the coal and oil industries and the legislators who support them. These opponents are aggressively working to weaken the House bill, even as UCS strives to make it stronger. Now more than ever, our activists’ calls, letters, and attendance at town hall meetings are needed to ensure that the Senate acts quickly to strengthen and pass the House bill.

In the weeks ahead, UCS will help our activists weigh in at key moments in the legislative debate, persuading senators to maximize the potential benefits of climate action by:

  • strengthening the short-term emissions reduction target to 20 percent by 2020;

  • strengthening the renewable electricity standard to require 25 percent of our electricity to come from renewable sources, such as the wind and sun, by 2025;

  • retaining a provision that calls for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and National Academy of Sciences to review the latest climate science and strengthening the policy response to that review;

  • investing more money in renewable energy and energy efficiency programs that will save consumers money;

  • preserving the EPA's existing authority to regulate global warming pollution under the Clean Air Act; and

  • limiting "offsets," which allow polluters to postpone emissions cuts in their own facilities by paying for reductions elsewhere, and strengthening offset quality.


Tropical Forests and Climate Initiative
With tropical deforestation causing about 20 percent of the world's global warming pollution and tropical forests disappearing at the rate of 1 acre per second, UCS has been working hard to make sure that lawmakers include strong tropical forest provisions into climate legislation. We stayed in close contact with congressional staff working on the House climate and energy bill to share our analyses and offer suggestions for the levels of funding - and helped bring together a unique environmental, power sector, and corporate coalition to support the forest provisions in the bill.

Under ACES, polluters will be required to pay for the amount that they pollute. With the coalition's help and calls and emails from you, we were successful in keeping 5 percent of these funds for preventing tropical deforestation! By the year 2020, this will reduce the world's global warming pollution by an amount equal to 10 percent of U.S. emissions - as well as save hundreds of acres of this important ecosystem.

Over the summer, UCS has also been building up relationships with the faith community and together we have created the Interfaith Appeal for Action on Tropical Forests and Global Warming. With your help, this letter has been gaining signatures and momentum. Please keep sharing it! We will be presenting this letter to senators this fall in joint meetings of faith leaders and scientists to show the importance of tropical forests. With this exciting letter and also some help from you, we'll be working to ensure that the Senate climate bill includes the same 5 percent funding for tropical forests.

California Closes in on Climate Loophole
Thanks to hard work by UCS activists and many others, on June 3, the state assembly passed a bill, written by UCS experts, which moved California one step closer to closing a loophole in the state’s ambitious plans to cut global warming pollution.

Industry lobbyists put the bill at the top of their “kill” list because it limits the use of offsets—credits that allow big polluters to avoid reducing their own emissions by paying for emission reductions elsewhere. By limiting offsets, the bill requires big polluters to actually clean up their own global warming pollution by transitioning away from a reliance on fossil fuels, instead of outsourcing the effort. Limiting offsets can help Californians reap all of the local side-benefits of climate action, like cleaner air and green job creation.

More than 90 public health, labor, business, environmental, religious, and social justice groups have endorsed the bill and are working closely with UCS to pass it. The California state senate will make a final decision on the bill by September 11, 2009.

With your help, we can pass strong climate and clean energy legislation this year!

Last Revised: 08/28/09