Environmental conference will target regional governors from around the world
The event, organized by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, aims to promote cooperation on technology and reduction of emissions in major industries.
The eyes of the world may be on President-elect Barack Obama, but when it comes to the issue of climate change, Arnold Schwarzenegger is muscling his way into the international spotlight.
On Tuesday, the California governor will convene a two-day Global Climate Summit in Beverly Hills. More than 600 environmental officials and activists from Borneo to Bulgaria, along with five U.S. governors and regional politicians from foreign nations, are expected to attend.
Grandiose gabfest? So whisper the Sacramento cynics, but Schwarzenegger calls it a "historic summit" that will create "an alliance of states, provinces and regional governments" to influence upcoming negotiations on a new global climate treaty.
He plans to join Illinois and Wisconsin in signing agreements with two Indonesian and four Brazilian states to work on tropical forest preservation.
Schwarzenegger also will issue a declaration endorsed by 12 U.S. governors, along with regional representatives from Brazil, Canada, India, Indonesia and Mexico, to share technology and cooperate on reducing global-warming emissions from high-polluting industries.
California, being merely a state (albeit the eighth largest economy in the world), has no standing in treaty negotiations, which are conducted between nations. That would be the purview of an Obama administration.
Even Mary Nichols, Schwarzenegger's top greenhouse-gas regulator, acknowledges that she wondered, at first: "Why are we doing this now, with a new administration in Washington? I was concerned it would look like grandstanding."
But on reflection, she concluded, "The governor is established as a leader on climate issues. It is something he cares about passionately." Moreover, she added in an aside, "it is a lot more fun than working on the budget."
The summit agenda includes panels on greenhouse-gas measuring and reporting, and on developing methods to cut emissions in the energy, forestry, agriculture, transportation, cement, steel and aluminum sectors.
"American states have coordinated regionally, as in the Western Climate Initiative," said Eileen Tutt, deputy secretary of California's Environmental Protection Agency. "But as states, we haven't reached out to China, Brazil and India before. That's a big step."
The Western Climate Initiative, endorsed by seven U.S. states and four Canadian provinces, would slash regional global-warming emissions by 15% below 2005 levels in the next 12 years.
