Governor Schwazenegger praises Prime Minister Blair

Governor Schwarzenegger has issued this statement praising Prime Minister Tony Blair for the introduction of legislation in Great Britain to reduce greenhouse gases. California and the United Kingdom signed an agreement- some might even call it a treaty- to cooperate in the fight against global warming. The Governor credited Blair with being the inspiration behind California’s Global Warming Solutions act:

I would like to congratulate Prime Minister Tony Blair for taking this historic step to do in Great Britain at the national level what California is doing at the state level. The Prime Minister has been an inspiration to California as we have taken our own historic steps to fight greenhouse gases with the Global Warming Solutions Act. His leadership has shown us that we can protect the environment without harming the economy. Great Britain has already successfully reduced its greenhouse gas emissions below 1990 levels while at the same time growing their economy by 38 percent.

California’s economy stands to greatly benefit from the wave of new businesses and jobs created by the emerging technologies and different approaches to fighting climate change. By harnessing market forces, we will reduce carbon emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2020. And by 2050, we will reduce emissions to 80 percent below 1990 levels.

California is proudly partnering with Great Britain to fight climate change and I look forward to advancing our efforts and linking our regional trading schemes so we can create a global carbon market.

Last July, Prime Minister Blair and I took the unprecedented step of signing an agreement between California and the United Kingdom to create an international partnership to fight against global warming. Our agreement includes efforts to evaluate and implement market-based mechanisms to spur innovation, deepen our understanding of the economics of climate change, collaborate on technology research and enhance linkages between our scientific communities.