(USA)
The energy goals of Donald Trump and his administration have been labelled a ‘declaration of war against America and all of humanity’ by California’s Governor.
Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. made the claim this month in response to Trump’s ongoing support for coal, and what he says are the President’s plans to ‘undermine the Clean Power Plan‘ of Barack Obama, which ‘set nationwide limits on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants’.
The preferred direction of travel being taken on energy by the current US government contrasts with most others worldwide and ignores the scientific evidence when it comes to the impact of power choices on climate change. Policy makers – and big business in the main – recognise the importance of accelerating the shift to renewables though, and that includes cities and communities across the United States. California is an exemplar of this: it is on target to generate 33% of its power from renewable sources by 2020, and aims to ‘produce 50% of its energy from renewables by 2030’. These ambitions are backed by a range of policies, such as placing solar systems into all new homes from 2020.
“We know that limiting global temperatures to well below 2°C demands that renewables and efficiency scale up rapidly,” said David McCollum, researcher for the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in a report released earlier this year, which showed more – not less – investment is needed in clean energy.
Read our interview with Jodie Van Horn, Director of the Sierra Club’s Ready for 100 campaign, to better understand the unstoppable impact being made by America’s grassroots advocates of clean energy – in tandem with many of its leaders – to overcome the barriers loved by the White House, and to ensure renewables is properly harnessed in the fight against climate change.
