Global Warming Reports

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Executive Summary

Global warming is the one of the most profound threats of our generation. And the time has come to take bold, aggressive actions to cut emissions and solve the problem. The good news is that California has the skills, know-how and ingenuity to lead the way in producing green technologies to solve global warming.

By many indications California is already leading the nation in developing global warming solutions. For example, California received more than $1.1 billion in cleantech investment from venture capital firms in 2006, nearly half of the U.S. total.

However, California and the rest of the developed world need to reduce emissions by at least 80 percent by 2050 in order to prevent the worst impacts of climate change. In California, this equates to cutting global warming pollution from its current level of 14 tons per person annually down to 1.5 tons per person in 2050.

Such a dramatic cut on our state’s global warming pollution over the next 40 years requires fundamental changes in the types of energy we invest in, the types of buildings we construct, and the transportation infrastructure that we build to move people and goods throughout the state.

To spur a clean energy revolution that can solve global warming, California needs to make large investments to drive new technologies into the marketplace and develop the next wave of clean technologies that will reduce pollution.