California is poised to implement the international offset provision of its Global Warming Solutions Act, which would create the first regulated market for rewarding tropical forest states and provinces that succeed in slowing emissions from deforestation.
The GCF partnership has inspired another global partnership that was also born in California—the “Under2 MOU“. Its 175 signatories represent 39% of the global economy and are collaborating to lower their carbon pollution and keep the Earth below a two degrees Celsius temperature increase.
The quiet revolution among states and provinces seeking to do their part in solving the climate change crisis is now in full view. Together with the growing resolve expressed by leaders of China, France, Germany and other nations to solve climate change and meet their obligations under the Paris Accord, it is possible to envision an under 2 degree world despite the Trump Administration’s dishonest, regressive attacks on climate change solutions.
Let us hope that our great-grandchildren look back on 2017 as the time when an irresponsible US leader energized a global, bottom-up revolution that sped the transition to a carbon-neutral human civilization.
Daniel Nepstad, a scientist, is the President of the Earth Innovation Institute in San Francisco, California, that supports tropical forest states and provinces in Brazil, Indonesia, Peru and Colombia in their transitions to low-carbon economies.
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