Gov. Vows Attack on Global Warming

In a speech before hundreds of business and environmental leaders at the United Nations World Environment Day conference in San Francisco, Schwarzenegger signed an executive order that outlined bold goals for slashing industrial releases of carbon dioxide and the other heat-trapping gases that climate scientists now link to rising temperatures and sea levels.

"As of today, California is going to be the leader in the fight against global warming," Schwarzenegger said, adding, "I say the debate is over. We know the science, we see the threat, and the time for action is now."

Under the executive order, by 2010 California would reduce its greenhouse gases to 2000 levels, or about 11% less than they would be without taking action. By 2020, California would reduce the emissions to 1990 levels, or about 25%. By 2050, the state would reduce the emissions to 80% below 1990 levels.

The 1990 baseline is a key barometer in the growing international effort to combat global warming, because it is the mark countries pledged to get below as part of the Kyoto Protocol, a pact signed by every developed nation except Australia, Monaco and the United States, the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases.

Schwarzenegger's proposal, which follows similar pledges by a number of states around the country, is only about half as aggressive as the Kyoto targets in the short run. But its long-term goals are far more ambitious than anything proposed in the United States. Indeed, some climate experts said that if California reduced its emissions by the targets Schwarzenegger set, it would cut more greenhouse gases than Japan, France or the United Kingdom.

Schwarzenegger never mentioned President Bush in his speech, but his call for aggressive action is a repudiation of the Bush administration's position on climate change. Bush reneged on a campaign pledge to curtail carbon dioxide emissions made during his initial campaign for president, and formally renounced the Kyoto pact. The Bush administration has since advocated only voluntary steps to reduce the gases, arguing that more drastic measures would damage the American economy.