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Global Warming Solutions - Reductions in Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Global Warming Solutions- Reductions in Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Environmental Challenge

Global warming is the greatest environmental challenge of our time.  Sea levels are on the rise, ice and snow cover are decreasing, and storms are becoming more powerful.  Leading scientists, such as James Hansen of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, caution that we are nearing a climate “tipping point,” beyond which large-scale, dangerous impacts would become unavoidable.   The Global Warming Solutions Act sets us on the course to keep emissions of the pollutants that cause global warming below this threshold and protect future generations from catastrophic changes to the climate. 

Maryland has begun to make significant strides toward reducing its emissions of global warming pollution, joining other states in the Northeast and across the country in efforts to reduce global warming pollution power plants and to increase our use of clean, renewable energy.

But the challenges posed by global warming are large, and the need for additional action to reduce emissions is immediate. Thankfully, many technologies and policy tools exist that could enable Maryland to cut its emissions of global warming pollutants within the next two decades, while moving the state toward a clean, secure energy future.

Bill Framework

Scientists and policymakers recognize a 2°C (3.6°F) increase in global temperature over the pre-industrial average as a limit beyond which “dangerous anthropogenic interference” with the climate system would become unavoidable.  

Even below 2°C, significant impacts from global warming are likely, such as damage to many ecosystems, decreases in crop yields, sea level rise, and the widespread loss of coral reefs.   Beyond 2°C, however, the risks are grave, such as the disintegration of the Greenland ice sheet, which would trigger an eventual 23-feet rise in sea level and displace millions of people worldwide.  

Scientists agree that nationwide we must reduce global warming pollution by 15 to 20 percent over the next fifteen years if we are going to be on course to keep the global temperature increase below 2°C.  The Global Warming Solutions Act is designed to mirror that reduction by committing to a reduction of Maryland emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, a reduction of 16 percent from current levels.

Achieving the Emission Reductions

To help achieve the emission reductions, the bill calls for a greater reliance on clean, renewable energy sources, improved energy efficiency, and clean cars.  It directs state agencies to design programs to achieve the maximum feasible and cost-effective reductions in global warming pollution.  It also provides companies flexibility in meeting the pollution-reduction goals through a “cap-and-trade” program.