California puts heat on Trump over global climate policy leadership

LOS ANGELES — The environmental ministers of Canada and Mexico went to San Francisco last month to sign a global pact — drafted largely by California — to lower planet-warming greenhouse pollution. Governor Jerry Brown flies to China next month to meet climate leaders there on a campaign to curb global warming. And a battery of state lawyers is preparing to battle any attempt by Washington to weaken California’s automobile pollution emission standards.

As President Donald Trump moves to reverse the Obama administration’s policies on climate change, California is emerging as the nation’s de facto negotiator with the world on the environment. The state is pushing back on everything from White House efforts to roll back pollution rules on exhaust pipes and smokestacks, to plans to withdraw or weaken the United States’ commitments under the Paris climate change accord.

In the process, California is not only fighting to protect its legacy of sweeping environmental protection, but also holding itself out as a model to other states — and to nations — on how to fight climate change.

“I want to do everything we can to keep America on track, keep the world on track, and lead in all the ways California has,” said Mr Brown, who has embraced this fight as he enters what is likely to be the final stretch of a 40-year career in California government. “We’re looking to do everything we can to advance our programme, regardless of whatever happens in Washington.”

Since the election, California has stood as the leading edge of the Democratic resistance to the Trump administration, on a range of issues including immigration and healthcare. Mr Trump lost to Mrs Hillary Clinton here by nearly four million votes.

Every statewide elected official is a Democrat, and the party controls both houses of the Legislature by a two-thirds margin. Soon after Mr Trump was elected, Democratic legislative leaders hired Mr Eric H Holder Jr, the former attorney-general, to represent California in legal fights with the administration. But of all the battles it is waging with Washington, none have the global implications of the one over climate change.

The aggressive posture on the environment has set the stage for a confrontation between the Trump administration and the largest state in the nation. California has 39 million people, making it more populous than Canada and many other countries. And with an annual economic output of US$2.4 trillion (S$3.3 trillion), the state is an economic powerhouse and has the sixth-largest economy in the world.

Mr Scott Pruitt, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) chief, whom Mr Trump has charged with rolling back Obama-era environmental policies, speaks often of his belief in the importance of federalism and states’ rights, describing Mr Trump’s proposals as a way to lift the oppressive yoke of federal regulations and return authority to the states. But of Mr Brown’s push to expand California’s environmental policies to the country and the world, Mr Pruitt said: “That’s not federalism — that’s a political agenda hiding behind federalism.”

“Is it federalism to impose your policy on other states?” Mr Pruitt asked in a recent interview in his office. “It seems to me that Mr Brown is being the aggressor here,” he said. “But we expect the law will show this.”

In one of his earliest strikes, Mr Trump signed an executive order in March aimed at dismantling the Clean Power Plan, President Barack Obama’s signature climate policy change. Much of the plan, which Mr Trump denounced as a “job killer”, was drawn from environmental policies pioneered in California.

Mr Brown has long been an environmental advocate, including when he first served as governor in the 1970s. He has made this a central focus as he enters his final 18 months in office. In an interview, he said the President’s action was “a colossal mistake and defies science”.

“Erasing climate change may take place in Donald Trump’s mind, but nowhere else,” Mr Brown said.

The precise contours of this battle will become clear in the months ahead as Mr Trump’s environmental policies take shape.

For now, the critical questions are whether the US will withdraw from the Paris Agreement, an international compact to reduce greenhouse pollution, and whether the EPA will revoke a waiver issued by President Richard M Nixon that permits California to set fuel economy standards exceeding federal requirements.

Revoking the waiver, which was central to a policy that has resulted in noticeably cleaner air in places like Los Angeles, would force the state to lower its tough fuel economy standards, which are also intended to promote the rapid spread of electric cars. As they stand, the rules would force carmakers to build fleets of cars that would reach mileage of 54.5 miles per gallon (4.32L/100km) by 2025.

California is preparing for a legal challenge.

Beyond pushing to maintain its state climate laws, California has tried to forge international climate pacts. In particular, Mr Brown’s government helped draft and gather signatures for a memorandum of understanding whose signatories, including heads of state and mayors from around the world, pledged to take actions to lower emissions enough to keep global temperatures from rising over 2°C. That is the point at which scientists say the planet will tip into a future of irreversible rising seas and melting ice sheets.

That pact is voluntary, but California, Canada and Mexico are starting to carry out a joint climate policy with some teeth.

Last month, a delegation from California travelled to Beijing to meet Chinese counterparts to help them craft a cap-and-trade plan.

“We have people working in China, in their regulatory agencies, consulting with them, speaking fluent Mandarin, working with the Chinese government — giving them advice on cap and trade,” Mr Brown said.

The Clean Power Plan was central to the US pledge under the 2015 Paris Agreement, which commits the nation to cut its emissions about 26 per cent from 2005 levels by 2025. Now that Mr Trump has moved to roll back the plan, it will be almost impossible for the US to meet its Paris commitments.

That has resonated powerfully in China. The heart of the Paris Agreement was a 2014 deal forged by Mr Obama and President Xi Jinping of China in which the world’s two largest economies and largest greenhouse polluters agreed to act jointly to reduce their emissions.

“China is committed to establishing a cap-and-trade this year, and we are looking for expertise across the world as we design our programme - and we are looking closely at the California experience,” said Mr Donquan He, a vice-president of Energy Foundation China, an organisation that works with the Chinese government on climate change issues.

Mr Brown recently met the Prime Minister of Fiji, who will serve as chairman of this fall’s United Nations climate change meeting in Bonn, Germany, which aims to put the Paris Agreement in force, with or without the US. The governor said he planned to attend as a representative of his state.

“We may not represent Washington, but we will represent the wide swath of American people who will keep the faith on this,” he said.