Gov. Brown Touts California's Cap-And-Trade System To UN Climate Summit
NEW YORK CITY (KCBS) — Gov. Jerry Brown took his message on climate change to the world stage Tuesday addressing the United Nations Climate Summit as part of star-studded lineup urging action on global warming.
President Obama, UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, actor and activist Leonardo DiCaprio all addressed the UN Climate Summit, along with former Vice President Al Gore, who cited California's drought as the latest evidence of how the nation is suffering from climate change.
"The large reservoirs, which are normally, comfortably full, are now at dangerous low levels—last year being the driest year in the history of California," Gore said.
Brown then took the podium, telling the summit that California's story is a "hopeful" one, because of the action taken not just by him, but by Democratic and Republican governors—stretching back to Ronald Reagan—to mitigate human impact on the environment and the climate.
"It's here, it's real and we've got to put a price on carbon—which we have," he said. "We have a $13 price on carbon and our cap-and-trade system covers 85 percent of greenhouse gases."
Brown said the challenge now is to keep opponents from undermining that system, such as the oil companies running a campaign to have certain fuels exempted from the cap-and-trade rules that take effect in January.
At the summit, major corporations and governments pledged billions to address it, and set new goals to cut carbon emissions and halt deforestation.