- In The News
- February 2023
CapRadio: How a New Law is Bringing More Attention to Natural Carbon Sequestration
February 6, 2023
Alliance Managing Director Taryn Finnessey speaks with CapRadio about California’s unique approach to carbon sequestration.
“States throughout the country have made moves toward conserving natural lands, an effort that boosts the environment’s ability to store carbon, which culminated in a conservation plan announced in 2021. The plan, called 30×30, aims to conserve 30% of U.S. lands, freshwater and ocean areas by 2030. Taryn Finnessey, managing director of the U.S. Climate Alliance, said the elevation of these goals helped boost the concept of natural carbon sequestration to a national level.
But Finnessey said California’s approach in its new law is unique. She said it’s the most comprehensive measure she has seen when it comes to different methods of natural carbon sequestration.
‘There are other states that are doing certain pieces of this, but… not where they are taking it from setting statewide targets and goals to really scaling that down to what it would mean across different agencies,’ Finnessey said.”
About the Alliance
Launched in 2017 by the governors of Washington, New York, and California to help fill the void left by the U.S. federal government’s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, the Alliance has grown to include 24 governors from across the U.S. representing approximately 60 percent of the U.S. economy and 55 percent of the U.S. population. Governors in the Alliance have pledged to collectively reduce net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 26-28 percent by 2025, 50-52 percent by 2030, and 61-66 percent by 2035, all below 2005 levels, and collectively achieve overall net-zero greenhouse gas emissions as soon as practicable, and no later than 2050.
The Alliance’s states and territories continue to advance innovative and impactful climate solutions to grow the economy, create jobs, and protect public health, and have a long record of action and results. In fact, the latest data shows that as of 2023, the Alliance has reduced its collective net greenhouse gas emissions by 24 percent below 2005 levels, while increasing collective GDP by 34 percent, and is on track to meet its near-term climate goal of reducing collective greenhouse gas emissions 26 percent below 2005 levels by 2025.
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