Combating global climate change in the Southwest

Global climate change is one of the most serious issues facing our state and the world – and it’s a threat we’re taking strong steps to combat in Arizona.

Our state has been a leader in the Western Climate Initiative (WCI) – a group of American states, Canadian provinces and Mexican states that is taking a regional approach to doing our part to prevent climate change.

While climate change is truly a global issue, the Southwest stands to be among the regions in the world that is most adversely affected by climate change, which could bring increased drought and more severe wildfires. Clearly, as long as we continue to see no real action from the federal government on this important issue, it’s critical that states take the lead and act.

The WCI is in the middle of taking its biggest strides yet toward developing a design for a regional cap-and-trade system that will reduce the amount of greenhouse gases our region is releasing into the atmosphere. Over the past few weeks, we’ve heard from stakeholders and members of the public about how to make a system that works to reduce our region’s greenhouse gas emissions by 15 percent below 2005 levels by 2020.

Even apart from WCI, Arizona has already led in reducing our energy use. The state’s Climate Action Plan will lower energy use, reduce waste, and save money in the process. State buildings now adhere to energy-wise LEED conservation standards, and we are already making the transition to a fleet of low-emissions state vehicles. Each of these steps will have an impact on energy savings – and also on climate change.

I’m proud that Arizona has taken the lead in an area as important as climate change. If you’re interested in the WCI, please visit www.westernclimateinitiative.org for more information.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, feel free to call my office at (602) 542-1318 or visit www.azgovernor.gov for information and news in state government.