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Hawaii Passes Law To Make State Carbon Neutral By 2045 (fastcompany.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Fast Company: In a little less than three decades, Hawaii plans to be carbon neutral -- he most ambitious climate goal in the United States. Governor David Ige signed a bill today committing to make the state fully carbon neutral by 2045, along with a second bill that will use carbon offsets to help fund planting trees throughout Hawaii. A third bill requires new building projects to consider how high sea levels will rise in their engineering decisions. The state is especially vulnerable to climate change -- sea level rise, for example, threatens to cause $19 billion in economic losses -- and that's one of the reasons that the new laws had support.
Transportation is a challenge -- while the state is planning for a future where cars run on renewable electricity, it also relies heavily on planes and ships, which will take longer to move to electric charging, and which Hawaii can't directly control. "Those are global transportation networks that don't have easy substitutes right now," Glenn says. "That's one of the reasons why we really want to pursue the carbon offset program, because we know we're going to continue to be dependent on shipping and aviation, and if they continue to burn carbon to bring us our tourists and our goods and our supplies and our food, then we want to try to have a way to sequester the impact we're causing by importing all this stuff to our islands." The government plans to sell carbon offsets to pay to plant native trees, which can help absorb CO2 from the atmosphere as they grow. The state is also working to become more self-sufficient. The governor aims to double local food production by 2030; right now, around 90% of what residents and tourists eat in Hawaii -- 6 million pounds of food a day -- comes from somewhere else, on planes or ships.
Transportation is a challenge -- while the state is planning for a future where cars run on renewable electricity, it also relies heavily on planes and ships, which will take longer to move to electric charging, and which Hawaii can't directly control. "Those are global transportation networks that don't have easy substitutes right now," Glenn says. "That's one of the reasons why we really want to pursue the carbon offset program, because we know we're going to continue to be dependent on shipping and aviation, and if they continue to burn carbon to bring us our tourists and our goods and our supplies and our food, then we want to try to have a way to sequester the impact we're causing by importing all this stuff to our islands." The government plans to sell carbon offsets to pay to plant native trees, which can help absorb CO2 from the atmosphere as they grow. The state is also working to become more self-sufficient. The governor aims to double local food production by 2030; right now, around 90% of what residents and tourists eat in Hawaii -- 6 million pounds of food a day -- comes from somewhere else, on planes or ships.
So just how are they going to offset that???
Given the volcanic activity on Hawaii I can't imagine it ever being carbon neutral.
So far it seems to work better then Carbon Neutral by Free Market.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
No one who passed it will be in office in 2045. As such, they don't own ultimate accountability for actually making it happen, but they can pat themselves on the back for 'driving it to happen'.
Reminds me of when IBM CEO declared a certain crazy fiscal target for 5 years out, and immediately retired so it would be someone else's fault the target was not feasible.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
Any law which has a deadline so far in advance that no one who votes on it will be around to see it come to fruition is, pretty much by definition, "feel good legislation". ie: horseshit.
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
a second bill that will use carbon offsets to help fund planting trees throughout Hawaii
I bet the recipients of the funds will be reading like a who's who of Hawaii's political donors.
It is almost 30 years in future.
Hodja Nasreddin once offered Persian Shakh to teach his donkey speak and read in 30 years. Then he explained that either Shakh or donkey or Hodja himself would definitely die in 30 years, so he wouldn't be punished for breaking this promise.
It seems that Hawaian lawmakers expect that either they will be dead or state would be submerged by 2045.