New York State on Wednesday approved one of the most ambitious greenhouse gas reduction laws on the planet. The state is against the climate denial of Donald Trump, who ended the same day burying Barack Obama’s anti-coal plan.
The European Union, France, the United Kingdom, Sweden, New Zealand, California are some of the jurisdictions to have set themselves the goal of being carbon neutral by the middle of the century, but most have not yet adopted binding legislation.
The text adopted by the New York State parliament (20 million inhabitants), led by the Democrats, plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 85% by 2050, compared to 1990 ( in 2015, the state was only down 8%).
In order to achieve a neutral carbon footprint, lawmakers are also providing incentives for the remaining 15% of emissions to be offset.
This means that within thirty years, most thermal power plants will no longer be able to burn natural gas or coal, and that the majority of vehicles on the roads will have to be electric or zero-emission – not counting heating. housing or the energy used by factories.
“New York shows the way”
“While Washington stands idly by, New York is showing the way,” said Democratic Senator Todd Kaminsky, one of the main architects of the law.
The state has set itself the intermediate objective of reducing climate pollution by 40% by 2030, again compared to 1990.
And by 2040, 100% of its electricity must be carbon-free. The State is already well advanced for this objective, a large part of the electricity now coming from nuclear (28%) and hydraulic (16%), natural gas representing 35%. Solar and wind power are negligible today.
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