;
;
California’s progressive Global Warming Solutions Act, known as AB32, sets ambitious goals for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, with broad impact on virtually every business and resident in the state. Signed into law in 2006, it requires the state to reduce GHG emissions some 30 percent by 2020.
Arup’s consultants teamed with The Climate Group, an international advocate for low carbon initiatives, to produce “The Business Guide to the Low Carbon Economy: California.” The publication introduces the state’s emissions reduction policies and offers practical guidelines for business – both to comply with reduction goals and to pursue business opportunities created in the process.
The guide urges prompt action to:
-
Implement comprehensive energy reductions now, ahead of future price increases.
-
Identify and reduce GHG emissions sources.
-
Engage in the AB32 implementation process and think strategically about requirements that affect customers, suppliers or their businesses directly.
-
Respond to consumer/investor interest in transparency and climate-friendly products and services.
Businesses, the authors write, need to “begin considering how rising sea levels, changing weather patterns and future regulatory requirements might impact their present and future value,” noting also that opportunities will emerge for those who “enable energy efficiency, provide renewable energy, mitigate climate impacts or help others adapt to a changing world.”
