Governor's Remarks at World Environment Day Conference

Thank you Terry Tamminen.

It's fantastic to be here with all of you, and I want to thank you for coming to California for the United Nations World Environment Day conference.

I want to thank Mayor Gavin Newsom and the City of San Francisco for hosting this conference and for bringing true leadership to the environmental movement.

I'm very happy to join you at this conference because I have always been a huge supporter of the environment.

Growing up in Austria, I was surrounded by clean air, crystal clear streams and lakes, magnificent mountains and much more.

And I found all this beauty also when I came to California. In fact, I'm like so many people who immigrated here. I came for the opportunity and stayed for the beauty.

And today here in California we continue to do everything it takes to protect our environment and keep that beauty.

Because our environmental heritage is just as strong and important as our legacy of opportunity.

Last year I traveled to Japan, a strong economic partner with our state. The interesting thing was when I met with Prime Minister Koizumi, the first issue he wanted to talk about was the impact all of us have had on our environment and now it's impact on us. And he said we have done so much damage for so long that if we don't begin to reverse it now it will be too late.

Like all of you, I look at the industrial societies that humankind has created over the past century, the great upward movement of civilization.

But at the same time, we ask ourselves what have we done to this world in the process?

Over generations, we have developed the ability to make people's lives more comfortable and create unbelievable opportunities for so many people.

But the march of progress has not come without consequences. For example, on the one hand thanks to innovation, technology, and discovery we have the ability to cure disease and help people live longer. And yet, on the other hand our impact on the environment has created great threats to public health and cut people's lives shorter.

We believe in progress, in moving forward to the next bold discovery. But here is one area where we should turn the clock back so we can once again

* Drink water from the faucet without giving it a second thought.

* Watch our children play outside without struggling to breathe or using an inhaler.

* And look out and see not only the structures built by humans, but the mountain ranges that stand far behind them.

And that is why, when I came into office, when I became Governor of California, I established an Environmental Action Plan to strengthen our commitment and lead the way in meeting new environmental challenges.

Like for instance, we created the 25 million acre Sierra Nevada Conservancy, the largest in the nation.

We opened the path to a Hydrogen Highway and started building hydrogen fueling stations.

We sponsored the first Ocean Protection Act in the nation to protect and restore our ocean resources.

We put more money into our program to replace dirty diesel trucks with clean alternative fuels.

We put the biggest user of electricity in California state government on an energy diet with our Green Building Initiative to save over 20 percent of the electricity and water we use in our facilities.

And now I want to keep the momentum going. As of today, California is going to be the leader in the fight against global warming.

In a moment I am going to sign Executive Order Number S-3-05 to establish clear and ambitious goals to reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions in our state.

By the year 2010, our goal is to reduce our emissions to less than those we produced in 2000.

By 2020, the goal will be to make our emissions lower than 1990 levels.

And by 2050 our goal is to reduce overall emissions a full 80 percent below those we produced in 1990.

I say the debate is over. We know the science. We see the threat. And we know the time for action is now. Global warming and the pollution and burning of fossil fuels that cause it are threats we see here in California and everywhere around the world.

These pollutants blanket the globe trapping heat and creating the "greenhouse" effect, the warming of the earth's atmosphere.

And all of this impacts our water supply, public health, agriculture, coastlines, forestry, and much more.

We have no choice but to meet this challenge.

It is not enough to be the caretaker of the world we have been given. We must leave a better world for our children and their children.

In decades past, when we brought this damage to the world around us, we didn't know any better. That was our mistake.

But now we do know better. And if we do not do something about it that will be our injustice.

So we will take the next big step here in California and mobilize with an aggressive plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

We will fully implement California's landmark Greenhouse Gas Law, which requires cleaner burning vehicles to be sold in our state starting in 2009.

We are going to accelerate the timetable to get more energy from renewable sources: 20 percent by 2010 and a third by 2020.

These sources include solar, wind, geothermal, and biomass from agriculture and other waste.

We will continue to push my initiative to have one million solar powered homes and buildings in California to save energy and reduce pollution.

We are greening the state's fleet of government vehicles, all 70,000 of them, to be the most fuel-efficient in the world.

I am also recruiting businesses up and down the state to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions because it makes sense for our environment and our economy.

Pollution reduction has long been proven to be a money-saver for businesses. It lowers operating costs raises profits and creates new and expanded markets for environmental technology.

I am very happy that in nearby Silicon Valley dozens of companies have committed to reducing their emissions even faster than the statewide goals.

So I am very proud of California's leadership in the fight against global warming. An important part of that great leadership is our State Legislature, and I look forward to working closely with them to achieve these new goals.

And I challenge everyone to match our commitment because I see California as an environmental partner, not only with our nation but with nations everywhere.

The world we live in and what we do to the land, air and water affects all of us.

John Muir, a Scottish immigrant who launched America's conservation movement right here in California, once said "When one tugs at a single thing in nature he finds it attached to the rest of the world."

I ask citizens and governments everywhere to do their part by conserving energy and reducing the use of fossil fuels for the good of the world community.

This is our duty to those who share this world with us and to those who follow us:

Wherever we see a threat to our environment we must take action.

And I know that by working together we can meet the needs of our economy and our environment and make this Earth a place of beauty and opportunity for future generations.

Thank you.

And now I will sign the Executive Order.