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 (H.R. 5642) aims to keep emissions of the pollutants that cause global warming below this threshold and protect future generations from catastrophic changes to the climate. 

Bill Framework

In 1992, the U.S. and most nations of the world agreed to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which has the objective of stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent “dangerous anthropogenic interference” with the climate system.[ii]  Scientists and policymakers recognize a 2°C (3.6°F) increase in global temperature over the pre-industrial average as a limit beyond which such changes would become unavoidable.[iii] 

Even below 2°C, 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 2°C, however, the risks are grave, such as the disintegration of the Greenland ice sheet, which would trigger an eventual 23-feet rise in sea level and displace millions of people worldwide.[v] 

The Safe Climate Act is designed to keep temperatures below this threshold and prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system by freezing U.S. emissions in 2010 and gradually reducing them each year through 2050.

Emission Reduction Targets

The Safe Climate Act freezes U.S. emissions at 2009 levels in 2010 and then gradually reduces them by roughly 2% per year through 2020.  This gives us 15 years to deploy the cleaner technologies that we already have but are not using much, such as hybrid vehicles and wind power.  After 2020, the bill cuts emissions by roughly 5% per year, as more advanced technologies, such as zero-energy buildings and biofuels from waste materials, become widely available.  Taken together, emissions will reach 1990 levels by 2020, and 80% of 1990 levels by 2050, which mirror the goals established by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

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 through a “cap-and-trade” program.  Specifically:

• Renewable energy standard: The bill directs the Department of Energy (DOE) to establish national standards requiring 20% 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% 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.  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:
  

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.