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“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.”
Launched on June 1, 2017 by the governors of Washington, New York, and California to help fill the void left by the previous administration’s decision to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Agreement, the Alliance has grown to include 24 governors from across the U.S. representing approximately 60% of the U.S. economy and 55% of the U.S. population. Governors in the Alliance have pledged to collectively reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 26-28% below 2005 levels by 2025, at least 50-52% below 2005 levels by 2030, 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 demonstrate that climate action goes hand-in-hand with economic growth, job creation, and better public health. While reducing emissions by 18% between 2005 and 2021, Alliance members grew their collective GDP by nearly 30%. The coalition’s states and territories are employing more workers in the clean energy sector, achieving lower levels of dangerous air pollutants, and preparing more effectively for climate impacts and executing more pre-disaster planning than the rest of the country.
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