This morning, British Columbia’s Climate Minister John Yap and Washington’s Director of Ecology Ted Sturdevant signed a pair agreements on joint climate action. (Early media coverage here and here.) One agreement commits to mutually supporting efforts to move toward carbon neutral state/provincial governmental operations. The second agreement sets out a plan for working together to educate the public about climate impacts, particularly sea level rise, an area where BC and Washington have much in common.
While it’s true that neither agreement carries the force of law—and they do not therefore mark a truly of game-changing event—I think it’s possible to undersell the significance of the signing. I’d argue that public education about the true scope and scale of climate impacts may be the most important thing that state officials can do right now, practically speaking. In a environment that is relatively unfriendly to serious carbon policy, making clear the local threats posed by climate change may prove to have a salutary effect on the body politic.
Also, I see that the Department of Ecology has recently released an updated greenhouse gas inventory for Washington. I won’t be able to dig into it until I can find some nice cozy block of time in my schedule, so I’d very much welcome thoughts on it from any of the wonktastic folks who read this blog.
Cathy Tuttle
Also of great significance is the fact this is an international agreement. Even if the other Washington needs to be dragged kicking and screaming to the climate response altar, these agreements suggest we can make regional climate policy that cross national boundaries.
Barry
Eric, I just looked at the WA GHG inventory and the state is still 8% above 1990. Worse, there is a clear six year trendline of mostly up. Not much hope in those numbers. Much bigger efforts are going to be needed on the five biggest sources (in MMtCO2e):24 MMt onroad gasoline15 MMt coal for electricity11 MMt natural gas for heating 9 MMt oil for heating 9 MMt onroad diesel All of these require scrapping millions of pieces of fossil fuel burning infrastructure and replacing them with infrastructure that can use sustainable, renewable, climate safe energy.Electrified transport. 45% of WA GHG is from burning fossil fuels in vehicles. That has to go to zero GHG in a few decades. That isn’t going to happen with just mpg improvements. It requires vehicles that don’t burn fossil. WA needs to prioritize these.Electric heat pumps for building heat. Air-source heat pumps have improved dramatically in recent years and now use 3 times LESS energy than a high-efficiency [sic] natural gas heater. These are one of the few technologies that radically cut energy use and GHG while saving money in the long run. WA needs to prioritize these.Cleaner electricity. Just kill the coal plant and bring in a FIT. Pay for it with a carbon tax. WA will need more clean electricity to enable non-fossil infrastructure.