Global Warming is one of the most profound threats of our time. The best science available tells us that preventing the most dangerous impacts of global warming requires halting increases in global warming pollution now, cutting emissions below 1990 levels by 2020, and getting on track to an 80% cut by 2050.

Rising temperatures, rising sea levels

Temperatures in Connecticut’s communities are on the rise due to global warming. For example, the winter of 2006 was 2.8 degrees warmer than average. As global warming continues to drive temperatures higher, Connecticut in the summer could soon feel more like Virginia or South Carolina than New England.

Global warming is also causing sea levels to rise as glaciers melt around the world. Rising sea levels threaten to destroy the fragile wetlands on the shore of Long Island Sound, and increase the vulnerability of Connecticut’s coastal communities to flooding and storm damage.

We must start reducing global warming starting now

Avoiding the worst impacts of global warming requires reducing emissions 15 to 20 percent by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050.

In 2004, the Connecticut legislature established a goal of cutting the state’s global warming pollution to 1990 levels by 2010, 10 percent below 1990 by 2020, and 75 to 85 percent by 2050. In 2005, the state created the Connecticut Climate Change Action Plan laying out the necessary steps to put Connecticut on a path to achieving those pollution cuts.

Unfortunately, Connecticut’s implementation of that plan has faltered. The state will almost certainly fail to meet the 2010 emissions goal. To get back on track, and do our state’s part in the fight to stop global warming, we need to act now.

Solutions are available today

The first step is enacting mandatory global warming pollution caps that require pollution reductions to at least 10 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050. Other states such as New Jersey, California and Washington have already enacted mandatory pollution caps as the necessary next step in the fight to stop global warming.

The Connecticut Global Warming Solutions Act creates mandatory global warming pollution caps and requires Connecticut state agencies to implement the necessary policies and regulations to reduce pollution to meet the caps. Doing so will enable our state to invest in cleaner, homegrown energy sources, increase energy efficiency, create cleaner mass transit systems, make our buildings more efficient and cheaper to light and heat, and reduce our consumption of fossil fuels.

Stopping global warming isn’t an option. It’s a necessity. The Connecticut Global Warming Solutions Act will help make sure our state does its fair share in this effort.