Safe Climate Act Fact Sheet

Global warming is the greatest environmental challenge of our time.  Sea levels are on the rise, ice and snow cover are decreasing, and storms are becoming more powerful.  Leading scientists, such as James Hansen of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, caution that we are nearing a climate “tipping point,” beyond which large-scale, dangerous impacts would become unavoidable.[i]  The Safe Climate Act aims to keep emissions of the pollutants that cause global warming below this threshold and protect future generations from dangerous global warming.

Bill Framework

In 1992, the U.S. and most other nations agreed to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which has the objective of stabilizing concentrations of global warming pollutants in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent “dangerous anthropogenic interference” with the climate system.[ii]  The Safe Climate Act aims to achieve this objective.

Scientists around the world recognize an additional 2Ëš Fahrenheit increase in global average temperatures (equivalent to a 3.6Ëš F (2Ëš Celsius) increase over pre-industrial temperatures) as a rough limit beyond which large-scale, dangerous impacts of global warming would become unavoidable.[iii]  Even below an additional 2° F, significant impacts from global warming are likely, such as damage to many ecosystems, decreases in crop yields, sea level rise, and the widespread loss of coral reefs.[iv]  Beyond an additional 2° F of warming, however, the risks are grave, such as setting in motion the complete melting of the Greenland ice sheet, raising sea levels by more than 20 feet and submerging many of the world’s population centers.[v]

The Safe Climate Act is designed to keep temperatures below this threshold and prevent dangerous global warming by freezing U.S. global warming emissions in 2010 and gradually reducing them each year through 2050.

Emission Reduction Targets

Specifically, the Safe Climate Act freezes U.S. emissions at 2009 levels in 2010.  Starting in 2011, the bill reduces emissions by roughly 2 percent per year, reaching 1990 levels in 2020, which is equivalent to a 15 percent reduction from current (2005) levels.  These reductions can be achieved using clean energy technologies that we already have but are not using much, such as hybrid vehicles and wind power.  Starting in 2021, the bill reduces emissions by roughly 5 percent per year, reaching 80 percent below 1990 levels in 2050.  These reductions can be achieved as more advanced technologies, such as zero-energy buildings and biofuels from waste materials, become widely available.  The 2020 and 2050 goals are similar to those adopted by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Achieving the Emission Reductions

To help achieve the emission reductions, the bill calls for a greater reliance on clean, renewable energy sources, improved energy efficiency, and clean cars.  It also provides companies flexibility in meeting the pollution-reduction goals by establishing a cap-and-trade program.  Specifically:

• Renewable energy standard: The bill directs the Department of Energy (DOE) to establish national standards requiring 20 percent of electricity to be generated from renewable energy sources in 2020.

• Energy efficiency standard: The bill directs the DOE to establish national standards requiring utilities to obtain 10 percent of their energy supplies through energy efficiency in 2020.

• Clean cars standard: The bill directs the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to set standards for reducing global warming emissions from motor vehicles that are at least as stringent as the current California standards, which have been adopted by 10 other states.  EPA must tighten these standards in 2014 and periodically thereafter.

• Cap-and-trade program: The bill directs EPA to set a cap on global warming emissions from the largest polluters and allow the polluters to meet the cap by buying and selling emissions allowances.  Specifically:

• Allowances are distributed according to a plan developed by the President, with an opportunity for Congress to ratify or modify the plan.
  

• Proceeds from auctioning allowances are deposited in a Climate Reinvestment Fund.
  

• Revenues in the fund are dedicated to maximizing the public benefits and promoting economic growth, including supporting technology research and development, compensating consumers for any energy cost increases, providing transition assistance for affected workers and regions, and protecting against harm from climate change, such as safeguarding water supplies, protecting against hurricanes, and mitigating harm to fish and wildlife habitat.

Periodic Scientific Review

The bill directs the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to review, every five years, our progress in avoiding dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system.  If the NAS finds that dangerous global warming is likely, it must identify the reductions needed and recommend additional national and international actions to achieve the reductions.

[ii] United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, available at http://www.globelaw.com/Climate/fcc.htm.  For U.S. ratification date, see http://www.globalpolicy.org/empire/tables/treaties.htm.

[iii] Malte Meinshausen, “What Does a 2ËšC Target Mean for Greenhouse Gas Concentrations? A Brief Analysis Based on Multi-Gas Emission Pathways and Several Climate Sensitivity Uncertainty Estimates,” in Hans Joachim Schnellnhuber, ed., Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change, Cambridge University Press, 2006.

[iv] Rachel Warren, “Impacts of Global Climate Change at Different Annual Mean Global Temperature Increases,” in Hans Joachim Schnellnhuber, ed., Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change, Cambridge University Press, 2006.