BILL NUMBER: AJR 43	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Members Bonilla and Williams

                        JUNE 6, 2016

   Relative to greenhouse gases.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AJR 43, as introduced, Bonilla. Greenhouse gases: climate change.
   This measure would urge the United States Congress to enact
federal policies to further the effort to combat climate change.
   Fiscal committee: no.



   WHEREAS, The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has stated
in its recently released 5th Assessment Report, Climate Change 2013:
The Physical Science Basis, that "  w]arming of the climate system
is unequivocal" and "i]t is extremely likely that human influence
has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the
mid-20th century"; and
   WHEREAS, In May of 2013, the global atmospheric concentration of
carbon dioxide reached 400 parts per million, the highest level in
the last 800,000 years; and
   WHEREAS, In May 2014, two separate scientific papers were
published in journals of Geophysical Research Letters documenting
dramatic retreats of Antarctic glaciers and predicting that
large-scale destruction of the West Antarctic ice sheets is likely
now inevitable and will lead to sea level rises of 10 feet or more;
and
   WHEREAS, The 2013 Indicators of Climate Change in California,
released by the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment,
found that continued warming of the atmosphere would cause threats of
flooding along the coastline of California; threats to
infrastructure, sewage systems, wetlands, and marine life; increased
ocean acidification; increased threats from wildfires; threats to the
water supply from decreased snow packs; increased asthma and
respiratory illness due to higher ozone levels; increased insurance
and mitigation costs; and negative impacts to the agriculture,
fishing, and tourism industries; and
   WHEREAS, Conservative estimates by climate scientists throughout
the world state that, to achieve climate stabilization and avoid
cataclysmic climate change, emissions of greenhouse gases must be
brought to 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050; and
   WHEREAS, The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006
(Division 25.5 (commencing with Section 38500) of the Health and
Safety Code) commits the state to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to
1990 levels by 2020, and the Governor's Executive Order S-3-05
further calls on the state to establish a policy to reduce greenhouse
gas emissions to 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050; and
   WHEREAS, The California Global Warming Solution Act of 2006 has
reached its 10-year anniversary and the California economy remains
strong; and
   WHEREAS, The United States needs powerful new policies to meet its
greenhouse gas emission reduction goals established in the 2015
Paris Climate Agreement; now, therefore, be it
   Resolved by the Assembly and the Senate of the State of
California, jointly, That the Legislature hereby urges the United
States Congress to enact federal policies that mirror the California
Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 to further the effort to combat
climate change throughout the United States; and be it further
   Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of
this resolution to the President and Vice President of the United
States, to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, to the
Majority Leader of the Senate, to each Senator and Representative
from California in the Congress of the United States, and to the
author for appropriate distribution.