It is individual states and not Washington that will lead the United States response to climate change, says Terry Tamminen, friend and adviser to California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

"I couldn't agree more that the U.S. has to step up. The good news -- it is already happening," Tamminen said.

The former head of California's Environmental Protection Agency was in Wellington to give the keynote speech to a Chapman Tripp symposium on climate change, and to extend to Prime Minister Helen Clark an invitation for New Zealand to take part in a process he is spearheading -- the creation of an emissions trading market centred in California.

"In June last year there were three states that had any kind of a comprehensive climate plan. Today there are 27 which have them or are developing them. Five have put them into law, which is extremely important because any politician can lay out a plan but if they are put into law you know what you are likely to get."

By 2009 when there was a new President in the White House and a Congress likely to take this issue seriously -- "which the current President and Congress will not" -- most Americans would live in a state with a world-class target for reducing greenhouse gases and a comprehensive and credible plan to achieve that, he said. ...

For the complete article, please follow this link.  To see the Climate Policy Program's map of which states have Climate Action Plans completed or in the works, please click here.