Governments Keep Making Ambitious Climate Pledges. Comparing Texas and California Show How Pledges Impact Economic Growth.

Delegates from around the world are in San Francisco for this week’s Global Climate Summit, aiming to provide “confidence to governments to ‘step up’ and trigger [the] next level of ambition” in cutting carbon emissions.   And their efforts were jump-started by Governor Jerry Brown's executive order pledging California to economy-wide carbon neutrality by 2045.

But governments considering ambitious climate pledges must inevitably ask:  How do these stronger emissions reduction commitments impact economic growth?

Compared to other places, like Texas – known for its oil and gas production – California’s economy is performing better on most measures, showing that it is entirely possible to pair steep emission reductions with vibrant growth.

California has established some of the world’s most ambitious carbon emission reduction targets, and is achieving them faster and at lower cost than expected.   The state hit its 2020 target four years early, while its economy grew much faster any other state and the U.S. economy as a whole – California’s economy climbed from 10th largest in the world in 2012 to 5th largest today.

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