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Global Warming
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Executive Summary
In August of 2001, the Conference of New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers (NEG/ECP) agreed to a comprehensive Climate Change Action Plan with the long-term goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the region by 75-85 percent. As that plan accurately pointed out, “global warming, given its harmful consequences to the environment and the economy, is a joint concern for which a regional approach to strategic action is required.” The Plan set the following goals:
• Reduce regional greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to 1990 levels by 2010.
• Reduce regional GHG emissions by at least 10 percent below 1990 levels by 2020.
• Reduce regional GHG emissions by 75- 85 percent in the long-term.
To achieve the short, medium and long-term goals of the Climate Change Action Plan the Governors and Premiers developed nine “Action Items” to guide the actions and policies of the states and provinces in meeting those objectives. The Plan also sets the goal of establishing an“interactive five-year process, commencing in 2005, to adjust the goals if necessary and set future emissions reduction goals.”
As in prior years, the 2006 Report Card evaluates and grades the progress the states and provinces have made towards achieving eight of the nine Action Items (“policy grades”). Since we are more than halfway to the 2010 GHG reduction target, this year’s Report Card also adds a new grading category (“pollution reduction grades”), based on whether the states and provinces are on track to reduce their GHG
emissions and meet the 2010 target.
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