LOS ANGELES – With the clock ticking for national governments to reach a deal to reduce harmful emissions ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris, Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. will welcome the United Nations’ top climate change official, Christiana Figueres, to Los Angeles tomorrow. They will join leading climate scientists to discuss the impacts of a changing climate and the need for swift, decisive action at every level.
When: Tomorrow, Monday, June 15, 2015. At the conclusion of the meeting, a news conference will be held at approximately 10:30 a.m. Reporters who have RSVP’d must check in at 10:00 a.m. at the North entrance.
Where: Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Age of Mammals Hall, 900 Exposition Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90007
**NOTE: This event is open to credentialed media only. Reporters interested in attending must RSVP to Andrew Santana at andrew.santana@gov.ca.gov by 7:00 p.m. today, Sunday, June 14, 2015.
Christiana Figueres has been involved in climate change negotiations for two decades and was appointed Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in 2010 and reappointed for a second three-year term in July 2013.
The United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as the 21st session of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC, or COP21, will be held from November 30 to December 11, 2015 in Paris, France and is one of the largest climate conferences ever organized. The aim of the conference is to reach, for the first time, a universal, legally binding agreement that will enable the world to combat climate change effectively and boost the transition towards resilient, low-carbon societies and economies.
While many national governments have failed to act on climate change, Governor Brown is seeking to further collaboration amongst states and provinces – at the “subnational” level – ahead of the conference to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Last month the Governor convened international leaders from 11 other states and provinces, collectively representing more than $4.5 trillion in GDP and 100 million people, to sign a first-of-its-kind agreement to limit the increase in global average temperature to below 2 degrees Celsius – the warming threshold at which scientists say there will likely be catastrophic climate disruptions.
This builds on other international climate change pacts between California and leaders from Mexico,China, North America, Japan, Israel and Peru and the Governor’s efforts to help forge and highlight scientific consensus around climate change.
Earlier this year, Governor Brown issued an executive order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in California 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030 – the most ambitious target in North America – and announced in his inaugural address new 15 year targets to: increase from one-third to 50 percent our electricity derived from renewable sources; reduce petroleum use in cars and trucks by up to 50 percent; and double the efficiency savings from existing buildings.
Next month, Governor Brown will join other international leaders, including former U.S. Vice President and Nobel laureate Al Gore and former president of Mexico Felipe Calderón, to deliver keynote remarks at the Climate Summit of the Americas in Toronto, Canada.