Fast-developing nations such as China, which has surpassed the United States as the globe's biggest emitter of planet-heating greenhouse gases, have refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol, the treaty to limit global-warming pollution, claiming it would limit their industrialization.
The Bush administration has refused to ratify a climate treaty until China, India and other emerging nations agree to cap emissions. The U.S. is the only nonsignatory among major industrial nations: European countries, Australia and Japan have agreed to national caps, and the European Union has set up a carbon-trading system.
Tensions are far from resolved as diplomats prepare to gather in Poland next month to begin negotiating a successor to the 2005 Kyoto pact. A new treaty is expected to be signed in Copenhagen in December 2009.
Schwarzenegger's summit, Tutt said, will allow California to "set an example for Poland and Copenhagen" by showing that even if nations don't agree to overall caps on emissions, they can still reduce greenhouse gas pollution in heavily emitting industries such as automobiles and cement.
California was the first U.S. state to design a comprehensive, technical plan to slash its own emissions across every sector of its economy. Five other states are following suit.
"Provinces and states can move the ball down the field a lot faster by targeting specific sectors and sharing best practices," Tutt said. "We are more nimble. When they sit around the huge table at the U.N, we can point to progress at the local level. . . . It is hard to say to India: 'You must cap your emissions' when it has 40 million people without electricity. But India can still reduce emissions in its energy sector."
Nichols, who as chairwoman of the Air Resources Board has been struggling with how to lower cement-related emissions without driving the industry overseas, said she hopes that the summit will produce concrete results. "If California and a couple of Chinese states and one or two others could get together and decide on common rules for the cement industry, then we don't have to wait for Copenhagen to be signed," she said.
Forestry agreements could offer benefits to California if industries in the state are able to fund preservation initiatives in nations such as Brazil as a cheaper way to reduce global warming and get credit under state climate plans. But the so-called offset projects are controversial, with some environmental groups questioning the validity of foreign projects.
