Can the Brown Administration Exceed New European Emissions Standards?

[image error]California clean energy advocates and Brown administration officials should be cheered by the European Union's announcement that they will cut greenhouse gas emissions by "at least" 40 percent by 2030, a doubling of their current trajectory of 20 percent by 2020. Cuts are measured from 1990 levels.

Demystifying these numbers, this means that the 28-nation European bloc will take major enforceable steps to cut carbon use in the next fifteen years consistent with the United Nations goal of staving off worse-case climate chaos by mid-century. The European announcement will be followed early next year by declarations from other countries as talks continue towards a possible global climate agreement by 2015.