A single, devastating California fire season wiped out years of efforts to cut emissions by 20percent by 2020, while it has also destroyed a record of $30bn in assets.
By comparison, it took a single, devastating California wildfire season to wipe out years of efforts to cut emissions by 20percent by 2020.
This is despite the state’s commitment to reduce emissions by 26 percent by 2020, a goal driven by California’s need to reduce air pollution, and its economic interests.
The impact of the fires has also destroyed a record of $30bn in assets, including more than $16bn in real estate, nearly $7bn in equipment and roughly $1.2bn in vehicles.
But while the severity of this fire season could have been greatly diminished by the state’s commitment to reduce emissions by 26 percent by 2020, the extent of the damage and loss to California’s economy is much greater.
The fires, which destroyed almost half a million homes and businesses, have also caused the state to lose a record of $30bn in economic activity — more than $13bn of which was in the tourism sector, $7.1bn in manufacturing and roughly $7.3bn in government, finance and real estate.
The fire season, which ended in September, has been the worst in the state’s history, but it is not the only devastating fire season that California has experienced over the past two decades.
A single, devastating California wildfire season wiped out years of efforts to cut emissions by 20percent by 2020
The severity of this fire season could have been greatly diminished by the state’s commitment to reduce emissions by 26 percent by 2020.
According to the Climate Reality Project, California’s last major clean energy innovation would have reduced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by nearly 70 percent by 2020 if it had been installed in 2015.
And according to a separate analysis by the University of California (UC) Berkeley, the state could have cut its greenhouse gas emissions by up to 90 percent.
The single, devastating California fire season, however, cut years from efforts to cut emissions by nearly 20percent by 2020