UNITED KINGDOM AND-CALIFORNIA ANNOUNCEMENT ON CLIMATE CHANGE & CLEAN ENERGY COLLABORATION
The environmental and economic consequences of climate change and our dependency on fossil fuels compel both California (CA) and the United Kingdom (UK) to commit to urgent action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote low carbon technologies. CA and the UK recognize the linkages between climate change, energy security, human health and robust economic growth. Working together, California and the UK commit to build upon current efforts, share experiences, find new solutions, and work to educate the public on the need for aggressive action to address climate change and promote energy diversity.
We commit to work to:
Evaluate and implement market-based mechanisms that spur innovation.
- The UK will share best practices on emissions trading and lessons learned in Europe. CA and the UK will also explore the potential for linkages between our market-based mechanisms that will better enable the carbon market(s) to accelerate the transition to a low carbon economy.
Deepen our understanding of the economics of climate change.
- Both CA and the UK have efforts underway to quantify the economic impacts of climate change, mitigation efforts, and adaptation strategies. We will share results from these on-going and emerging studies. In particular, we must understand how best to model the impact of climate change emissions reduction policies and adaptation measures on regional and national economies.
Collaborate on technology research.
- We will coordinate our energy sector efforts to switch to clean energy technologies, promote green buildings, and increase the use of efficiency and renewable energy technologies. We will share information regarding our efforts to reduce emissions from the transportation sector, including California’s emission standards and hydrogen highway and the United Kingdom’s experience with a renewable fuels standard and clean coal technologies.
Enhance linkages between our scientific communities.
- Enhanced coordination will help us understand the impacts of climate change at a regional level, potential mitigation strategies and adaptation measures, as well as acceptable levels at which to stabilise emissions. There are a number of efforts to build on, most notably at the UK Hadley Centre and the Virtual Climate Center in CA.
