Climate change was one of the key subjects on the agenda when Lord Levene and Governor Schwarzenegger met last Monday in Sacramento.
California represents the sixth largest economy in the world, and is one of the few states in the US which has adopted Kyoto-style emissions targets independently of the federal government. Climate change is a priority issue for Governor Schwarzenegger, who is under no illusions as to the influence that a state like California can have on this issue. In 2007, he stated to a meeting of the student body at Georgetown University that: “California is big, it's powerful and what we do in California has unbelievable impact and it has consequences."
The importance of tackling climate change is something on which Lloyd’s Chairman Lord Levene fully agrees. At a meeting of the World Affairs Council in Washington, D.C. last year, he said: “We cannot risk being in denial on catastrophe trends. We can expect to see US mega-catastrophes with $100bn insured losses soon. We urgently need a radical rethink of public policy, and to build the facts into our future planning.”
California faces a number of specific risks as a result of climate change. The first and arguably one of the most worrying is the shrinking of the Sierra Snow Pack, the large accumulation of snow in the Sierra Nevada and the southern Cascade Mountains. The tightly-packed snow stores much of California’s water reserves, which flows to lower ground as it melts in spring. If warmer winters lead to rain instead of snow, the result could be water shortages during the warm summer months. Flooding is also a concern: flooding in California generally occurs as a result of excessive rainfall which floods rivers and breaks levees. If excessive precipitation becomes more frequent, flooding will become an even greater issue than it is currently.
Wildfires are another worry for California, with fires decimating the landscape and causing $1bn of damage in 2007 alone. Under many climate change scenarios, dryer conditions will increase the risk of forest fires spreading and getting out of control. Scientists suggest that climate change has already had an impact on this risk.
Another challenge for California is its greenhouse gas emissions. Although its CO emissions are low for a US state, and much lower than the US average, they are still relatively high on a global scale. One of the main causes of CO emissions in California is the burning of fossil fuels for transport. California is a busy state, and traffic is particularly bad around urban areas. According to studies, the average Californian experiences around 97 hours of traffic delay a year, which gives an indication of the scale of the problem. Not only are the emissions having an impact on the climate, but deteriorating air quality in the long-term has health implications too.
In 2006, California signed a law that set itself a target of cutting its 2020 greenhouse gas emissions by 25%. This is a signal of how seriously California takes the climate change agenda. Indeed, Governor Schwarzenegger established the Climate Action Team to help deliver this, which is made up of high-level representatives from various Californian state agencies. Its purpose is to implement programmes to reduce carbon emissions, in line with the state-wide targets as follows:
• 2010 emissions should be reduced to below 2000 level
• 2020 emissions should be reduced to below 1990 levels
• 2050 emissions should be reduced to 80% below 1990 levels.
In addition, at the beginning of 2007 Governor Schwarzenegger announced an initiative with four other western-US states to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and at the end of 2007, California participated in the development of the first InternationalCarbon Action Partnership. The partnership is made up of a coalition of western states, Canadian provinces and EU countries, including the UK, focused on developing solutions to help fight climate change.
California’s Air Resources Board provides a very different example of the state’s leadership on climate change. The innovative climate champions programme identifies young people between 16 and 18 to become climate champions and promote the climate change agenda. By attending a climate camp, and using online networking to share ideas and spread the word, it is hoped that young Californians will be able to make a difference both nationally and internationally.
Despite inevitable debate over some of the applications of climate change policy in California, the motivation behind the state-wide drive is contagious. Schwarzenegger has even urged that climate change should be “made sexy” and in a conference in Washington, D.C. he branded traditional environmentalists: “no fun; they were like prohibitionists at a fraternity party." He believes that this change in attitude will allow the environmental movement to enter the mainstream, where he feels it should be. When Lord Levene met with the Governor last Monday he may have used different language, but we are sure he agreed.
