What's New

In the absence of national leadership, states have been forging ahead with the solutions to global warming to protect future generations from the worst effects of a warming planet.

Knowing that we can accomplish more together than separately, Arizona has teamed up with other western states to develop regional strategies to address global warming, called the Western Climate Initiative (WCI).

The WCI states have already committed to reducing emissions by 15 percent below 2005 levels by 2020.

Brief Summary

Over the last century, average annual temperatures in the Southwest have increased, leading to smaller snowpacks and earlier snow melts. These changes decrease available drinking water supplies and increase the risk of spring flooding, summer droughts and more intense fire seasons.

The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recently concluded that global warming is “unequivocal” and warned of climbing temperatures, rising seas and shifting weather patterns.

Although scientists say that to avoid the worst effects of a warming planet, the United States must reduce its greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2050, Arizona's emissions have been rising steadily for many years.  

In the absence of national leadership, states have been forging ahead with the solutions to global warming. Knowing that our western states could accomplish more together than separately, the Western Climate Initiative was launched in February 2007 by the governors of Arizona, California, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington to develop regional strategies to address climate change. Since then, WCI partners have expanded to include: Arizona, British Columbia, California, Manitoba, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah and Washington. Many other states and provinces are observers: Alaska, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Nevada, Wyoming, Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan and Sonora.

In August 2007, the WCI partners announced their regional reduction goal of 15 percent below 2005 levels by 2020, or approximately 33 percent below business-as-usual levels.

By August 2008, the WCI partners will announce and approve their design of a market-based cap-and-trade mechanism to help achieve their pollution reduction goal.

Cap-and-trade systems attempt to reduce emissions in a cost-effective manner by creating a financial incentive for polluters to reduce their emissions.

Environment Arizona is working to achieve a strong, science-based regional program that includes the following:

• An aggressive, science-based, declining cap. A tight cap that declines over time and provides real emission reductions is the most important design element. A tight cap is essential to ensuring that real emission reductions are achieved.
• Auctioning allowances rather than giving them away to polluters. Giving away allowances would distort the market, hurt consumers and result in windfall profits for polluters. Auction revenues should be invested in clean, renewable energy and energy efficiency to ease the transition to a New Energy Economy.
• Avoiding loopholes. The program should not include a weak “safety valve” that would undermine the program and reduce the incentive to innovate.
• Limited and strict standards for offsets and borrowing. Offsets should be held to high standards and should be geographically limited. Polluters should not be allowed to pollute more today by promising they’ll reduce more tomorrow.
• Multi-sector. In order to capture as much pollution as possible, the program should include pollution from a wide range of sectors, including electric utilities; large, industrial, stationary sources; and transportation fuels, while providing complementary non-market mechanisms to capture other sectors and encourage further innovation.
• Transparency, and
• Strong monitoring and enforcement.

Arizona must be a leader for the region by making sure that the regional initiative is aggressive, practical and well implemented. The adoption of a strong regional strategy will provide leadership for the United States. This kind of leadership is critical if we hope to prevent the worst effects of a warming planet.