SACRAMENTO – Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. today welcomed Sweden to the Under2 Coalition – the global pact among cities, states and countries to limit the increase in global average temperature to below 2 degrees Celsius, the level of potentially catastrophic consequences.
“As rising oceans inundate coastlines across our planet, Sweden joins hundreds of leaders from around the world who are forthrightly attacking the increasing threat of climate change,” said Governor Brown.
The agreement was signed during a meeting today between Governor Brown and Isabella Lövin, Swedish Minister for International Development Cooperation and Climate, and Deputy Prime Minister. A number of representatives from California and Sweden joined the meeting, including Ambassador of Sweden to the United States Björn Lyrvall.
“There has never been a greater need for international cooperation on climate. Sweden and California will push for higher global ambition on climate change and will work individually and together to draw more international attention to the actions and ambitious reduction goals that are needed,” said Minister Lövin.
At today’s meeting, Governor Brown and Minister Lövin also signed a letter of cooperation to support Under2 Coalition members in sharing best practices to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote renewable energy development.
With the addition of Sweden’s endorsement, the Under2 Coalition now includes 168 jurisdictions on six continents that collectively represent more than 1.1 billion people and $26.4 trillion GDP – equivalent to 15 percent of the global population and 36 percent of the global economy. Sweden is the 11th country to endorse the Under2 Coalition.
The Under2 Coalition, the collective of governments who have signed or endorsed the Under2 MOU, was formed in 2015 by the states of California and Baden-Württemberg, Germany to mobilize and galvanize bold climate action from like-minded city, state and regional governments around the globe. Coalition members pledge to limit greenhouse gas emissions to 2 tons per capita or 80-95 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.
California’s Leadership on Climate Change
Last month, Governor Brown reaffirmed California’s commitment to exceed the targets of the Clean Power Plan and the state’s efforts to curb carbon pollution, which include establishing the most ambitious greenhouse gas emission reduction targets in North America and the nation’s toughest restrictions on destructive super pollutants. The Governor has also signed legislation that directs cap-and-trade funds to greenhouse gas reducing programs which benefit disadvantaged communities, support clean transportation and protect natural ecosystems.
This action builds on landmark legislation the Governor signed in October 2015 to generate half of the state’s electricity from renewable sources by 2030 and double the rate of energy efficiency savings in California buildings. Governor Brown has also committed to reducing today’s petroleum use in cars and trucks by up to 50 percent within the next 15 years; make heating fuels cleaner; and manage farm and rangelands, forests and wetlands so they can store carbon.
The Governor has traveled to the United Nations headquarters in New York, the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris, France, the Vatican in Italy and the Climate Summit of the Americas in Toronto, Canada to call on other leaders to join California in the fight against climate change. Governor Brown also joined an unprecedented alliance of heads of state, city and state leaders – convened by the World Bank Group and International Monetary Fund – to urge countries and companies around the globe to put a price on carbon.
These efforts build on a number of other international climate change agreements with leaders from the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Mexico, China, North America, Japan, Israel, Peru, Chile, Australia and Scotland and Governor Brown’s efforts to gather hundreds of world-renowned researchers and scientists around a groundbreaking call to action – called the consensus statement – which translates key scientific climate findings from disparate fields into one unified document.
The impacts of climate change are already being felt in California and will disproportionately impact the state’s most vulnerable populations.
More information about the Under 2 Coalition can be found at www.under2MOU.org.
Photo Caption:
1.) Governor Brown and Minister Lövin.
Photo Credit: Joe McHugh, California Highway Patrol.
For a high resolution copy of this photo, please contact Izzy Gardon, Office of the Governor, at izzy.gardon@gov.ca.gov
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